Bibb County Bullying Hotline Concerns

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)- A new text messaging system designed to make it easier for Bibb students and parents to report bullying may not be as simple as school administrators thought.

The text hotline has 3 sets of numbers and breaks all Bibb schools into two zones. The number a student or parent texts depends on the zone the school falls into.

Each text will start with 37607. ” They text one number and after they text it then in the body of the message they’ll be texting the number for their zone,” says Bullying Compliance Officer Dr. Steve Corkery. Those numbers are 154941 and 68053.

One resident told 41NBC, “That’s too many numbers to remember,” an other said, “I wouldn’t remember it. I’d have to have it wrote it down in my phone somewhere.”

The idea of the system is to keep up with the times. “I think kids are more use to doing this than we are. They can open a phone quickly,” says Corkery.

The Bullying Compliance Officer adds, “this targets a new audience, because of its convenience.

The messaging system is also designed for people who happen to witness a bullying incident. Some residents says it’s a number they can see students using and they can see themselves using it.

Janna Poitevint tells 41NBC, “I think it’s convenient. As much as children are on their phones now a days all you have to do is save it to your phone.”

Others would like the numbers to change. “It should be a catchy. Something they can remember. Something trendy. Something catchy,” says Shawandra Walker.

Since the text hotline opened 6 days ago, one anonymous text has been received. Dr. Corkery says the school system is looking into ways to make the hotline numbers more accessible other than having them on the Bibb County School website.