Case Study

Overview

School districts face an all-hands-on-deck moment as the reality of today’s worsening student mental health crisis sets in. San Marcos Unified School District (USD) has partnered with Lightspeed Alert to find students in need of help and generate data to gain more support for struggling students and their families.

Opportunity: Confronting the new reality of today's mental health crisis

San Marcos USD is recognized as one of the top five school districts in San Diego County, California, enrolling 19,500 students, the district prides itself on providing an unparalleled educational experience.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 shutdowns, San Marcos Unified School District saw that the mental health situation of its students had changed dramatically, and that things would not be returning to the pre-pandemic normal anytime soon. District leaders saw a troubling post-pandemic increase in suicide rates across not only middle and high schoolers but also elementary school students.

As a district, San Marcos USD saw these trends and knew we had a massive need. We knew the resources that our county and community had just weren’t enough, and we needed to be able to do something about that internally,

“As a district, San Marcos USD saw these trends and knew we had a massive need. We knew the resources that our county and community had just weren’t enough, and we needed to be able to do something about that internally,” stated Christi Frias, Director of Student Services.

“The reality is, this is the normal now … so what are we going to do to help students feel safe? How are we going to create environments where they know they belong and have the support they need?” Frias said. “We are never going to have enough staff, so we need a support system in place that allows us to reach more students and have fewer who fall through the cracks.”

With a renewed focus on comprehensive mental wellness, the district looked for solutions to augment staff resources and allow teams to develop innovative methods to better identify and support students.

Solution: Comprehensive coverage and layered support for early intervention and staff peace of mind

Already a satisfied Lightspeed Filter™ client for almost a decade, San Marcos USD was eager to leverage Lightspeed Alert’s sophisticated technology and comprehensive coverage to enable earlier and more effective support for struggling students. Lightspeed Alert’s artificial intelligence (AI) scans a large breadth of online student activity—including web browsers, social media, YouTube, and Google and Microsoft productivity apps—for signs of self-harm, violence, and bullying, flagging potential risks and threats for review and follow up. “Lightspeed looks at everything, and we get these alerts in real time,” explained Frias. “I don’t have to sift through anything because that is all done for me by Lightspeed.”

San Marcos USD was also impressed by the seamless implementation of Lightspeed Alert. “The threat categories and risk levels are already defined for you. The only configuration required is deciding who will receive the alerts in your district—something that we update at the beginning of each school year,” stated Stephanie Casperson, Executive Director of Technology. “We keep [Lightspeed] Alert on from the beginning of the school year until the end of the school year, including nights and weekends.”

The threat categories and risk levels are already defined for you. The only configuration required is deciding who will receive the alerts in your district— something that we update at the beginning of each school year... We keep [Lightspeed] Alert on from beginning of school year until end of school year, including nights and weekends.

Layered support and shared responsibility with Human Review

The volume of alerts once San Marcos became a 1:1 district initially raised concerns about the potential of missed incidents after school hours or on the weekend and the risk of district liability. “There was a big concern that the district would be held legally responsible if an alert was missed and something happened,” Frias said. “But not moving forward with this technology as part of our overall mental health and safety program was not an option. We saw it as our responsibility to try stop anything if we could.”

The district was excited to take advantage of the Human Review component of Lightspeed Alert. Implementing the Human Review component of the solution essentially augments the districts resources. Lightspeed’s in-house team of Safety Specialists to provide 24/7/365 review of every alert and immediately escalate high and imminent threats to designated district personnel. This eliminates the need for district staff to actively review alerts after school hours while also providing everyone with peace of mind that urgent issues will be prioritized.

These safety specialists are full-time, US-based professionals, with relevant backgrounds and training, that work for Lightspeed. This, combined with our existing student privacy agreement, helped alleviate some initial concerns about people outside of the district reading student emails and documents.

The high quality of the Lightspeed Safety Specialists™ alleviated some initial apprehension about giving non-district people access to student online activity. “These safety specialists are full-time, US-based professionals, with relevant backgrounds and training, that work for Lightspeed. This, combined with our existing student privacy agreement, helped alleviate some initial concerns about people outside of the district reading student emails and documents,” said Casperson.

Lightspeed Alert has enabled San Marcos USD to implement a tiered support structure, including Lightspeed Safety Specialists, district-level contacts, and site-level contacts. The district utilizes an escalation list to direct alerts from safety specialists to four district-level contacts, followed by local law enforcement if those contacts cannot be reached. “If I don’t respond to an alert, a Lightspeed Safety Specialist calls me to make sure I saw it. If I don’t answer, there are three other people on that list that they call,” stated Frias. “And, if it is an imminent threat, a call is made directly to our Sheriff’s Department.”

If I don’t respond to an alert, a Lightspeed Safety Specialist calls me to make sure I saw it. If I don’t answer, there are three other people on that list that they call...and, if it is an imminent threat, a call is made directly to our Sheriff’s Department.

“The human review component has been critical in how we are able to strategically implement Lightspeed Alert and use it effectively within the district,” emphasized Frias. “Without that human review component, there was a liability, and people felt responsible for always monitoring alerts. The worry that they might miss something weighed heavily on staff. We now have a lot of layers in place, so each site staff person isn’t responsible for stopping every threat.”

Threat mitigation and additional context for offline investigations

The combination of Lightspeed Filter and Lightspeed Alert empowers staff with context around alerts, including student web history and timelines. “From a threat management perspective, this is a critical piece. If we have someone we are concerned about, we can come into Lightspeed [Alert] and vet what they have been searching for and writing about. We can search specific terms to see who has searched them, when, and how many times. We can drill down to see if there has been other concerning activity,” Frias shared. “This will allow us to check in on students who may be exhibiting anti-social behaviors but are unwilling to open up to us. Then we can hopefully intervene to get that student the support they need very early on.”

From a threat management perspective, this is a critical piece. If we have someone we are concerned about, we can come into Lightspeed [Alert] and vet what they have been searching for and writing about. We can search specific terms to see who has searched them, when, and how many times. We can drill down to see if there has been other concerning activity.

Additionally, this student profile data can be used to provide additional context in investigations that did not originate from Lightspeed Alert. “If there is a situation we are investigating, we can go into the Lightspeed Alert student profile, see their activity, and download that data,” Casperson stated. “We can use this history data to drive conversations with students in crisis, communicate with parents, finetune our filter, and protect the district from liability.”

Results: Saving students' lives and expanding mental health resources

Since implementing Lightspeed Alert, San Marcos USD has proactively identified numerous students in crisis, allowing them to intervene quickly to ensure student safety. “I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have saved students,” stated Frias. “We have sent out law enforcement, based on calls from Lightspeed Safety Specialists, and they have placed students on 5150 holds— either because they were planning to take their lives or harm someone else. This has happened more times than I can count.”

We have sent out law enforcement, based on calls from Lightspeed Safety Specialists, and they have placed students on 5150 holds—either because they were planning to take their lives or harm someone else. This has happened more times than I can count

In addition to enabling a more proactive approach to student safety, Lightspeed Alert has provided the district with concrete evidence to support requests for additional funding and critical resources. “When we give hard numbers to our cabinet and our school board around these things—such as the number
of students having these thoughts, the number of students searching for these things, grade and site level trends—this is the type of data that shows the ‘why’ behind the need,” Frias explained. Data from Lightspeed Alert has been used to support the district’s Local Control and Accountability (LCAP) funding request for more counselors and social workers. “We need more people because kids are in crisis, and the data from Lightspeed Alert has been instrumental in demonstrating this need,” shared Frias.

The district also successfully leveraged this aggregate data to partner with the City of San Marcos on a mental health awareness campaign called Let’s Face It. Together. “One of the wonderful things we were able to do was partner with the City of San Marcos on an awareness campaign to destigmatize mental health issues, encourage students to find trusted adults, and partner with others to provide additional mental health services,” said Frias. With this funding, the district was able to establish wellness teams, comprised of a school-based mental health professional and a family community engagement liaison, who can visit a struggling student’s house to support them and their families. “None of these things could have been done without the data to help support why we needed it,” Frias said.

When we give hard numbers to our cabinet and our school board around these things—such as the number of students having these thoughts, the number of students searching for these things, grade and site level trends—this is the type of data that shows the ‘why’ behind the need

Additionally, the district’s usage of Lightspeed Alert has promoted a deeper partnership with the community, including the Sheriff’s Department, SROs, the City of San Marcos, and families. “They appreciate it. Our Sheriff’s Department knows what Lightspeed [Alert] is because they are involved in welfare checks on the weekends. Our SROs are called out to assess threats and prevent self-harm,” Frias said. “Everyone in our community is aware of what Lightspeed [Alert] is and why we use it.”

Lightspeed Alert has become a critical tool for supporting student safety and wellness at San Marcos USD. “At this point, I get at least five high risk alerts daily. I can’t imagine what would be happening if
we didn’t have this,” stressed Frias. The district’s usage of Lightspeed Alert was even further validated when the FBI reached out last year to discuss its threat management process. “They were interested in looking at our district because we use Lightspeed Alert, and it provides so many critical components, such as content filtering, keyword analysis, search history, and alerts, that they believe are necessary for these types of systems,” added Frias.