LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GoGuardian, a leading education technology SaaS provider, today announced Beacon, a suicide and self-harm prevention tool for K-12 schools, that acts as an early-warning system to help schools proactively identify at-risk students to quickly get them the assistance they need.
By combining real-time scans and a proprietary machine-learning engine, only GoGuardian is able to provide comprehensive, context-aware analytics to intelligently assess the content students are creating and interacting with online via web searches, social media, chat, forums, email and online collaboration tools.
“Our mission is to put student potential and well-being at the center of all of our technology. With advanced machine learning, we have supported K-12 students in every aspect of their education, and now we are extending these capabilities to help support students’ mental health and safety,” said Advait Shinde, co-founder and CEO of GoGuardian. “In working with 10,000 schools with more than 5.3 million students, we learned how pervasive suicide and self-harm issues are affecting today’s youth, so we invested considerable time and resources to develop a dedicated product built specifically for school mental health professionals to get them the help they need.”
Beacon was built in collaboration with suicide prevention experts, including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology. It is the only tool able to assess, monitor and alert based on what’s actively happening across students’ PCs in real-time, providing schools with immediate and actionable information. Beacon will be rolled out to K-12 schools in the upcoming academic year.
Operating beyond simple keyword searches, Beacon is able to trigger immediate alerts based on contextual content, such as “I can’t do this anymore,” or “Do I need to swallow more pills if they are past their expiration date?”. Schools are able to tailor Beacon to complement their existing suicide prevention protocols and notify the right staff so they are equipped to take quick action. Beacon also provides round-the-clock monitoring and the ability to automatically notify parents even outside of school hours.
Beacon is being launched at a time when youth suicide has become a major public health problem. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for ages 10-24, and a recent CDC study found that 20 percent of school-aged children have considered suicide. And, since 2007, the rate of death by suicide has increased 30 percent for boys age 15 – 19 and has doubled for girls the same age. In response, schools are looking to undertake more structured and comprehensive efforts to identify suicidal thoughts and prevent suicidal behaviors.
“This is a complex, high-stakes issue and we have approached it very seriously, spending months working alongside school officials, mental health professionals, and suicide prevention leaders to build a product tailored to the unique needs of schools,” said Tyler Shaddix, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at GoGuardian. “Beacon provides insights into everyone who is at risk, including the ‘silent sufferers,’ the over-achieving AP students and the accomplished athletes who tend to slip through the cracks.”
About GoGuardian
GoGuardian has changed the way K-12 schools maximize the learning potential of every student. Its products help educators identify learning patterns, protect students from harmful and distracting content, and support students who are at risk of self-harm and suicide. With GoGuardian, educators can easily engage students with more effective resources and communication. No other tool provides such actionable insight into student needs which is why 10,000 schools and 120,000 educators choose GoGuardian to engage with and protect over 5 million students.
Learn more about GoGuardian’s industry-defining learning analytics, student engagement, and suicide and self-harm prevention products at www.goguardian.com.