public static function stripTags(string $value = null, string $replacement = '')
    {
        if ($value === null) {
            return null;
        }

        if ($replacement === '') {
            return strip_tags($value);
        }

        $findTagEntities = '/<[^>]+?>/';
        $valueWithReplacements = preg_replace($findTagEntities, $replacement, $value);
        return strip_tags($valueWithReplacements); // use built-in as a safeguard to ensure tags are stripped
    }