Students, staff or adults in the Bradford Area School District can now pick up their cell phones or other devices and call, visit a website or use an App to anonymously report at-risk behaviors with others on a national system called the Safe2Say Something program.

The program was just launched this week in the school district to create and sustain a comprehensive, coordinated effort to improve the overall safety and well-being of the students, educators and administrators, stated Superintendent Katharine Pude in a message to parents on the district website. She said the program, which is no cost to the district, is mandated under PA state law, Act 44, for school safety. Pude said the program “teaches students, teachers and administrators how to recognize warning signs and signals, especially within social media, of individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others and to ‘Say Something’ to a trusted adult or use its anonymous reporting system.

“This is a huge violence prevention program and it’s run by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office,” she explained Wednesday. “It’s creator was the Sandy Hook Promise” organization.

The Safe2Say Something website notes, “the national, nonprofit organization is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook School on December 14, 2012.”  

In Pennsylvania, the Crisis Center for anonymous tips from school districts is funded by the Commonwealth, while the Sandy Hook Promise funds the training and education. The program is in more than 10,000 schools in all 50 states, impacting over 5.5 million students.

Pude said she spoke with students at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School on Tuesday and with Bradford Area High School students Wednesday regarding the new initiative.

“It’s developmentally appropriate for that age of students in middle school through high school, but it’s not for the younger students,” Pude said of the program. “It teaches kids how to recognize warning signs and signals, especially in social media and things they should be alerted to and report, because it might be a threat to themselves or somebody else.”

Pude said the whole concept of the program is to say something before it’s too late.

“With most violent incidents it’s been proven that the person who committed the act of violence or self-harmed, did tell somebody in advance in some way, shape, or form — but nobody reported it,” Pude remarked.

She said reports made to the anonymous tip line go directly to the Attorney General’s office.

“(The reports) would then be triaged back to our 911 Center and a district-wide team,” Pude continued. “My administrators on the team (recently) trained with the state and met a number of times with our 911 Center to make sure we’re all on the same page, and with our local police departments.”

Also conducting the training that was held at the Pennhills Club were members of the Sandy Hook Promise program.

“We actually were sent training materials to be used so that we would be sending a consistent message across the state,” Pude added. “We used a PowerPoint that was given to us by the state to use with the students … it was very simplistic.”

Prior to the training, the school district also provided a presentation to the middle and high school students by a trained psychologist.

“The high school psychologist did a presentation on bullying (that included) what is bullying, what is rude behavior, what is mean behavior and what is normal human conflict,” she commented. “This was to make sure that everybody understood that not everything is bullying.”   

A suicide prevention program, and signs to look for among peers, was also presented to the students.

In addition, practice runs were conducted among administrators and meetings were held with local police officers. The team also met with McKean County District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer.

On a final note, Pude said the tip line is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, and will be manned by five trained on-call team members in the district.

“If this even makes a difference in one child’s life, then it’s worth doing,” Pude concluded.

Students, staff and the public can download an App for the program that is available for Apple or Android devices. They can also call 1-844-SAF2Say or visit the website  www.safe2saypa.org to provide anonymous tips.