Imagine getting a call from your son or daughter’s principal that your child has accessed information on the web on how to commit suicide.

Anne Seisel, who retired this year from the Warwick School Department and continues to work on special projects including training her successor in grant writing, said Sunday she knows of three such incidents in the last year. She said there were maybe more as well as searches using school provided Chromebooks on how to build a bomb.

School personnel were alerted via GoGuardian Beacon, a program that can be tailored to provide data to designated personnel when devices are being used to retrieve information on how to hurt themselves or others.

Thanks to a Rhode Island Department of Education subgrant to support safe, health and supportive schools announced last week by Gov. McKee, Warwick schools will have access to GoGuardian and the Rave Panic Button.  Warwick schools unsuccessfully attempted to introduce Rave, an app that enables teachers and school personnel to simultaneously contact first responders and other school personnel in an emergency, several years ago. Seisel said teachers were wary of the app, fearing authorities could track their whereabouts, and that it would be an intrusion of their privacy. Seisel said the tracking feature only comes into play when the app is activated. She believes with proper training teachers will be more receptive to installing the panic button.

GoGuardian and Rave are named in the application that Seisel wrote winning Warwick $424,359.as one of 12 statewide grants totaling $4.8 million. The grant is for three years of funding.

Seisel said she based the city application on a survey finding 60 to 70 percent of students and parents don’t feel safe at school.

Retired Warwick Police Officer Danny Maggiacomo, who assumed the role of Warwick school safety officer about a year ago, said Monday he would need both hands to count the number of times GoGuardian alerted the department to a potentially serious situation.

“It’s not a form of big brother. We want to get ahead of it before it turns out to be a big problem. It’s all geared to school safety,” he said. In many cases involving threats, Maggiacome said, police are notified first and they coordinate to determine the seriousness and veracity of the information.

“Some of it is a bunch of nonsense,” he said but it needs to get checked out. He said teachers and students play a big role in passing along information about a possible threat.

“Our population understands that telling someone about concerning behavior is very important to a safe school environment.”

He has found that like police work, nothing is routine and that while cases may seem similar they are not.

The grant would also fund the professional development and teacher stipends for the Responsive School program, Seisel said. Funding would provide for two days of coaching over two years.  As the department is partnering with Rocky Hill School in the Responsive School program one of the coaching days would go to Rocky Hill.

• According to online information the Responsive School program aims to establish signals that get children's quick, quiet attention anytime and anywhere in school; craft school rules that children take seriously even cherish; Give staff techniques for teaching and reinforcing expected behavior; Help children with especially challenging behaviors avoid discipline problems and give staff methods for quickly restoring positive behavior when a discipline problem comes up among other things.

Funding for the local education agencies (LEAs) is appropriated under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to establish and expand safe, healthy, and supportive learning opportunities and environments.

“We must ensure every school is safe and school districts have the resources they need to support students, teachers, and school staff,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed said in a release. “This federal funding will improve mental health services and school security improvements at schools across the state. It will go a long way toward violence prevention and better school-based mental health services that are essential to safe, healthy, and supportive schools.”

“When students feel safe and supported in the classroom, they are positioned for long-term success,” said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “I voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and I’m pleased this funding from the bill will help make schools safer, healthier, and more inclusive for students and educators across Rhode Island.”

“Every student deserves to be safe and supported in the classroom,” said U.S. Representative Seth Magaziner. “By investing in education and inclusive learning environments, we will ensure that the next generation is set up for success.”