Dallas Independent School District has taken action against the threat of harm at its schools. The district has implemented the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System at all Dallas schools that teach grades 6-12 in an effort to combat violence.
Since 1970, Texas has been the site of more than 135 school shooting incidents, including the 2018 Galveston school shooting that killed ten people and injured eight others.
The Say Something system is a youth violence prevention program from the national nonprofit organization Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) that encourages students to share information about concerns in schools, such as bullying or threats of violence, as well as help students who may be struggling.
“Students are grappling with all kinds of challenges since the onset of the pandemic,” Dallas ISD Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova said in a news release. “We believe it is also our responsibility to help identify behaviors before they escalate into problems, and the ‘see something, [say something]’ model does that, ultimately preventing serious acts from ever occurring.”
The system is developed for students in grades 6-12 and includes a mobile app, website, and phone hotline for users to send tips to the National Crisis Center for analysis and response 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Tipsters” can report anything from threats observed or overheard at school to personal difficulties such as sexual harassment, self-harm, abuse, bullying, and depression. Their identities will be kept secret to avoid any form of retaliation.
Calls and messages received by the Say Something crisis center will be assessed by the National Crisis Center to determine an appropriate response. An imminent threat to life will result in a call to 911 and notification of the relevant campus.
The Say Something system is available to two million students and instructors in over 5,000 schools and districts across the United States. SHP provides the program and its associated training to districts for free.
DISD officially launched the program on Monday. Administrators and Say Something response teams at each Dallas school have been training with the system since the fall of the 2021-2022 academic year.
Dallas middle and high school students are being taught how to use the Say Something system in training sessions that began at schools this week.