Say Something Anonymous Reporting System saves lives
It’s been less than two months since the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System was launched in the Brentwood Unified School District in California, and already school officials report the program has helped to save the lives of at least six students.
Through the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, the district received 42 tips within the first 39 days of rolling out the system. All but one of the tips were credible.
“There is no doubt in my mind that those six students’ lives were directly impacted as a result of the app,” said Chris Calabrese, the director of student services for the district. “Not only did these students get the interventions they needed, but they also discovered they have friends and adults who really care about them. That, alone, gave some of the students hope.”
Learn more about the Say Something and Say Something Anonymous Reporting System programs.
Making schools safer in 2020: STOP School Violence Act grant awards
Sandy Hook Promise is partnering with the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University, the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the West Palm Beach School District in Florida to make schools safer, thanks to funding allocated from the STOP School Violence Act. More than 3,000 schools will receive training on how to identify, intervene and get help for individuals who may be at risk of hurting themselves or others – and prevent violence before it can happen.
Read more about this new violence prevention initiative.
Secret Service report reveals the “secret” to preventing school shootings
The U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center released an analysis of K-12 school shootings between 2008 and 2017, looking closely at the motives and behaviors of the attackers, among other details. Excerpt from the report:
“The analysis suggests that many of these tragedies could have been prevented, and supports the importance of schools establishing comprehensive targeted violence prevention programs. … The threshold for intervention should be low, so that schools can identify students in distress before their behavior escalates to the level of eliciting concerns about safety. Because most of these attacks ended very quickly, law enforcement rarely had the opportunity to intervene before serious harm was caused to students or staff. … Prevention is key."
The truth about gun violence and mental health
With support from people like you, Sandy Hook Promise is committed to stopping gun violence before it can happen. That’s why our Know the Signs programs introduce violence prevention before an individual considers picking up a gun or weapon.
That’s also why we believe extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), also known as red flag laws, are a part of this solution to stop gun violence. They allow family members and law enforcement to intervene when a person who has access to guns is in a moment of crisis. Seventeen states have this law so far, and they’ve helped avert multiple suicides. Sandy Hook Promise is supporting ERPO legislation at both the federal and state level.
In honor of raising mental health awareness, we look at how ERPOs can reduce the number of lives lost to gun violence while making sure that they don’t unfairly blame those living with mental illness.
Read the blog post, then sign our petition to support ERPO laws.
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