Before Thanksgiving break, teachers used the Monday advisory period to show a mandatory video discussing Panther Creek’s decision to start using Say Something.
The Say Something Reporting System is a part of the Sandy Hook Promise, an organization dedicated to stopping school shootings and violence in schools across America.
In the twenty minute video, students were instructed on how to spot warning signs of people wanting to hurt themselves or others and how to report it to Say Something, an app that allows anonymous, or at least more discreet, reporting of suspicious behavior to adults.
The aim of Say Something is to make students more comfortable reporting suspicious activity to adults without fear of repercussions. The idea is that by being the eyes and ears of their school, students will be able to stop any school violence before it ever happens.
While it may be a good message and idea as a whole, most students seem to not be taking this issue seriously. Jokes about reporting behavior to “a trusted adult” have been heard numerous times in the hallways, showing how most students believe the app is only there to give the illusion of safety, and will do nothing to make an actual difference in these issues.
There are also concerns about the humor of students being mistaken for warning signs. For example, it is not uncommon to hear a high school student student threaten to commit suicide after a minor inconvenience. To most other students, this would be recognized as a joke or exaggeration, but as per the Say Something video, that statement should be taken as a ‘warning sign’ of possible self harm.
This raises the question of how effective the new app will be to address these issues. If every joke about self harm was reported as something serious, the system would likely overload within a day. On the other hand, if none of these “warning signs” are taken seriously, the purpose of the app would be diminished.
While most students and staff agree that the Say Something platform is good in its intentions, the possibility of it actually helping keep our school safe is likely low. We will have to wait to see how, or if, the app will keep Panther Creek safer.
