By Guardian staff reporter
Publication Date: 2026-03-03 13:00:00
The alarm came around 7 p.m.
Brittani Phillips checked her phone. Phillips, a middle school counselor in Putnam County, Florida, receives messages from an artificial intelligence therapy platform that students use outside of school hours. It indicates when a student may be at risk of harming themselves or others because of what they type in a chat.
Phillips recognized this was a “grave” warning for an eighth-grader.
So Phillips spent her evening on the phone with the student’s mother, interviewing her to find out what was going on and how vulnerable the student was. Phillips also called the police, she said, noting that she told students the chats were confidential until they could no longer be.
That was last school year, in the spring.
“He’s alive and well. He’s going into ninth grade this year,” Phillips said. She believes the interaction built trust between her and the family. When the student passes her in the hallway, he expressly greets her, she adds.
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