Our mission is to make schools safer for students. Safe Schools reduces school violence by developing and supporting student-led programs. We train and support students to leadanti-bullying and school shooting prevention efforts in their schools.
Safe Schools has two anti-bullying initiatives. It has developed the Angels & Heroes program to reduce bullying in grades five through eight. This is a mentoring and leadership program that trains a team of high school juniors and seniors to teach younger students about bullying and cyberbullying.
Safe Schools also organizes student conferences on school violence. In December 2019 it organized a student-run conference on bullying (the first ever in New Hampshire). In late fall 2020 it is organizing a student-run cyberbullying conference. The core of the program is a Student Panel with two or three former cyberbullies, two victims (not of those bullies) and two bystanders. They each tell their stories. This discussion will be facilitated by a bullying expert.
There is no school shooting prevention program or model in New Hampshire. Safe Schools has built one by drawing on the experience of a successful Colorado program (Safe2Tell).
The Safe Schools program trains students to identify and report potential threats. It has three parts: 1) a training program to identify the signs of potential violence; 2) a phone/web app and toll-free phone line to anonymously report the threat; and 3) a trained school response team.
We know this approach works because Colorado has done it successfully for over fifteen years with Safe2Tell (http://www.safe2tell.org) and we model our program on Safe2Tell. Although Safe2Tell was started in response to the risk of a school shooting, the majority of reports are for suicide threats, bullying, harassment and other forms of aggression. The program casts a wide and beneficial net.
Safe Schools goes beyond Safe2Tell in one respect. It gives students a significant role. Students will not engage or lead without having a voice, and if they do not have a role, the evidence is that the program won’t be as successful as it could be. We teach students how to run the programs.
