HCPS is officially launching the “Say Something” Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS) for students, which most North Carolina public school districts will be adopting this year to meet the reporting guidelines and standards developed by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Say Something is a youth violence prevention program from the national nonprofit organization Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), which has funding to provide the program and training at no cost to the district.
The SS-ARS allows youth and adults to securely submit anonymous safety concerns – anytime, from anywhere – to help identify and intervene upon at-risk individuals before they hurt themselves or others. The system enables school administrators and law enforcement to create effective interventions and to help prevent violence, suicide, bullying, self-harm and other forms of threatening behavior.
“If a student needs to speak up about a concern – whether it’s about themselves or someone else – but they don’t know who to turn to, ‘Say Something’ is here,” said Superintendent Bo Caldwell. “It’s a robust system that’s always on, always accessible, and it allows students to voice their concerns anonymously, while making sure their messages are heard by the right adults.”
Designed specifically for use by students in grades 6-12, SS-ARS provides three reporting platforms (mobile app, website, 24/7 phone hotline) for users to submit tips – and a crisis center to examine and triage those tips. When credible tips are received, the crisis center will notify school-based representatives, even after hours when tips are life-threatening and require immediate intervention. And, in cases of imminent threat, the crisis center will contact local 911 dispatch and involve law enforcement.
The Say Something program is for reporting any type of serious concerns about students who are struggling or potentially violent. So “tipsters” can send reports on anything from school threats they’ve seen or overheard to personal crises including sexual harassment, self-harm, and depression.
Students can submit a tip through the online Say Something system by visiting www.saysomething.net directly, or navigate from the district and schools’ website homepages by clicking the “Tip Lines” icon. The free app is available for download from the App Store and Google Play Store, and students can submit tips through the hotline by calling 1-844-5-SAYNOW.
As of January, 2,364 schools and school districts are participating in the Say Something system, with more than 1.7 million students and adults trained in the SS-ARS, according to Sandy Hook Promise. Locally, HCPS administrators and “Say Something” response teams at each school have been training with SS-ARS since the fall of this school year, and HCPS middle and high school students are learning how to use the system during trainings in school this week.
The district collaborated with local media production company Hamlin Creative, whose chief creative officer is a product of Henderson County Public Schools, to develop a PSA-style video for the student trainings. To localize the important message about self-reporting, the video also features HCPS high school students. A shortened portion of the video is being shared on district social media as part of today’s launch, and the full video will be released later to remind students and families about the new “Say Something” system.