Bullying has plagued schools for as long as anyone can remember and a brand-new app is giving students the choice to become heroes rather than passive bystanders.

While there are many children who would be willing to report bullying or stick up for a classmate, the fact of the matter is, many of them don’t. It could be out of fear of turning into the target or these children may just have a carefree "it’s not my problem" attitude. Every day, students watch as classmates are bullied or picked on and many won’t do anything about it. For numerous reasons.

Well, for those who do want to help their classmates but don’t want to become a target or be called a snitch, there's a new app introducing a possible solution.

“As King 5reports, the app is called Anonymous Alerts, and it lets kids safely share any sort of harmful behavior — be it bullying, drug dealing or a student carrying a weapon — to school officials without fear of becoming a target themselves,” according to Molly Brown of GeekWire.

“Vashon Island and Manson School Districts have implemented the apps in their schools. Vashon Island school officials told King 5 that “they like the way the app works. They’ve had a fair amount of reports, as well as a few false reports,” but overall are pleased with the system.”

The app seems fairly easy to use based on the iTunes description and the description given by GeekWire. Students can simply choose the official they need to contact, describe the type of bullying, where it’s taking place and how urgent the situation is.

Anonymous Alerts is looking to take a step in the right direction towards helping educators get to the bottom of bullying cases before they can become fatal or emotionally draining for students. Now devices that were often banned in schools and classrooms in the past have become a tool that could help put a stop to bullying.

Read the full story and comment below.

Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor