Columbia High School’s SAVE Club (Students Against Violence Everywhere) participated in last week’s “Say Something” week, a new project for the students.
Advisor Toni Floyd said the national SAVE program had teamed up with the “Sandy Hook Promise” group after receiving a grant for the sixth year in a row by the Allstate Foundation.
Parents of the victims of the 2012 shooting in Connecticut that claimed the lives of 26 people, formed the nonprofit. The group provides scholarship funding and a network to fight both school violence, signs of suicide, dating abuse, etc., she said.
Schools nationwide have agreed to take part in the scheduled Sandy Hook Promise programs.
“Say Something Week is full of events built on one foundational fact: according to Sandy Hook Promise and cited in other research, 80 percent of school shooters had told at least one person of their plans prior to the act but even so, nothing was done to stop it” Floyd said. “The program is designed to empower students to speak up if they see or hear something troublesome from a classmate. It's meant to make students more comfortable with reacting to certain warning signs they may encounter from their classmates, such as posts on social media, which could indicate future violence.”
Recently several SAVE students received some special training, according to Floyd.
“Our SAVE student officers and I attended a wonderful training on all of this in Jackson last month that's enabled us to bring the knowledge back to our school and pass it on,” she said. “Our SAVE students made an excellent video that features our students, our choir as background music, and the message of ‘Say Something.’ It's so good that I'm entering it into the National SAVE contest.”
Floyd said a grant helps to fund activities at the schools.
“We won the Allstate Foundation grant for the sixth year and we went to Jackson to attend training,” she said. “We’re carrying through with the promise to look for the warning signs around us. All of the evidence suggests that then whenever there has been a school shooting, suicides … that there have been signs. They’ve said something, they’ve sent a text or they’ve posted something on social media. Our students look for those signs and they know that to look for as a result of some of the educational things we’ve brought back from that meeting. We’re encouraging them to act immediately- tell an adult – a trusted adult, like a teacher, to stop any violence from happening.”
CHS SAVE Vice President Kori Miles said events like last Thursday’s were important to teens.
“As vice president of the SAVE Club and the social media consultant, I’m just grateful that the SAVE Club has presented me with a platform to really help somebody else who might not feel they have a safe place or someone to talk to. That’s the best part about it.”
Understanding their peers is a goal of the SAVE Club.
“You’d be shocked how many kids don’t really understand bullying and what it is,” Miles said. “You think about the dramatic situation of somebody being physically abused, but sometimes it’s just something like someone saying something rude to someone else. That’s why we just try to help people understand what is important. We try to help people understand what is important. We want them to understand what’s appropriate in a school setting.”
Pictured Above: CHS SAVE Club members Brianna Rink, left and Shaniya Rich collect signatures at the school. | Photo by Mark Rogers
