'Say Something' app offers Dallas ISD students a new safety tool
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Ask a school leader anywhere about safety and you'll likely get a familiar response: "Security is always at the top of our minds."
Now, Dallas ISD is looking to add another layer of protection by putting a new tool into students' hands.
"You're going to want to go to the `Say Something' app," explains Rachel Ramos, a junior at the School of Science and Engineering at the Yvonne Ewell Townview Magnet Center. "Just submit a tip, and then you will select your school... scroll through. There's lots you can do."
The app acknowledges that teens are most comfortable navigating life online, and school leaders are looking to use that digital presence to encourage students to anonymously report anything that could present a danger to themselves or the school community. That includes changes in behavior, bullying, access to weapons, and more.
"And it can be something like a school shooting -- things at that level -- but it also can be when students are feeling overwhelmed and sometimes they'll tell a friend, 'You know, I'm thinking about hurting myself'," explains Susana Cordova, Dallas ISD's Deputy Superintendent. "And you can report that and just say something."
The Say Something app is available to the district's secondary students, anonymously connecting them to a national crisis center hotline that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Students and community members can also send in tips via a webpage or telephone hotline.
Mental health issues are referred to local campuses. An imminent threat will prompt a 911 call to police.
"We all send our kids to school in the morning and believe that they're going to be taken care of," says Cordova, who herself is a parent. "And when something like this happens tragically, we find ourselves grappling with the unbelievable concept that kids don't come home. It's really a wakeup call that we need to do something different."
Finding the courage to "say something" is a start.
"And you know, for the most part, all of our schools are very safe," says Cordova. "These tragic, horrible incidences are just a really critical reminder that it's on all of us -- both inside school and outside of school -- to intervene when we know that there are problems."
So school leaders are also encouraging parents to do some homework over the summer and have those conversations that remind their teens that we can all play a role in just getting to come home.
"That's what we all want," says Ramos. "We want our loved ones, our family to be safe. We want to trust that we can go to school and get an education without fearing for our lives."
