The Brunswick School Department is committed to creating and sustaining a comprehensive, coordinated effort to improve the overall safety and well-being of our students, educators  and administrators. Doing this effectively requires a proactive approach with programs that equip our students, parents, teachers, administrators, local law enforcement, and mental health and wellness professionals to take meaningful action to protect our schools.

Phillip Potenziano is superintendent of the Brunswick School Department.

Our students are aware of the problems and struggles that their peers face on a day-to-day basis. We must empower them to know the signs of potential danger and give them the tools to help each other with the assistance of trained and caring adults. Most conversations are taking place on social media; therefore, we must teach our students to look out for one another in text, video and photos and act quickly to help a fellow student.

The Brunswick School Department launched The Say Something Anonymous Reporting System in the last week of September. The system is designed specifically for use by students in grades 6-12 and includes a mobile app, website and telephone hotline for users to submit tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to the National Crisis Center for analysis and response.

The reporting system is for any type of serious concern about students who may be struggling or potentially violent. “Tipsters” can send reports on anything from school threats they’ve seen or overheard to personal crises, including sexual harassment, self-harm, abuse, bullying and depression.

The Say Something system trains youths and adults to recognize warning signs – especially within social media – in individuals who may be in crisis and to tell a trusted adult directly or via the anonymous reporting system.

Specifically, the Say Something program educates participants to:

• Recognize the warning signs of someone who may be at risk of harming themselves or others.
• Take every warning sign and threat seriously; act immediately to get help by talking to a trusted adult or reporting it through the telephone hotline, mobile app or website.
• Sustain the curriculum and awareness via student clubs, in-school activities, call-to-action weeks and ongoing trainings.

Students can submit a tip through saysomething.net directly or navigate from the district and schools’ website home pages by clicking the Say Something icon. The free mobile app is available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Students can also submit tips through the hotline by calling 1-844-5-SAYNOW.

When credible tips are received, the Crisis Center notifies Brunswick School Department-based representatives of those tips that are life-threatening and require immediate intervention. And in cases of imminent threat, the Crisis Center contacts the local 911 Brunswick Police Department dispatch and involves law enforcement. This enables school administrators and law enforcement to work together to effectively prevent shootings, suicide, bullying, self-harm, and other forms of violence and victimization.

Brunswick School Department works tirelessly to make schools safe and caring places. In many cases, students and parents feel comfortable reporting concerns directly to our staff (teachers, administrators, resource officers, counselors, etc.), and I encourage students and parents to continue using these typical methods to report concerns.

The Say Something Anonymous Reporting System is not to replace this healthy and open communication. But rather, we want students to help us keep schools safe and to break the “code of silence” with respect to matters that can affect the safety of schools.

If you or your student suspect or become aware of any students or adults in a school who are planning to act or are acting in any unsafe way, please let us know by using the Say Something system. It is a fast, effective and safe way to let us know about an unsafe situation without worrying about being identified as the source of information.

The system is offered at no cost to Brunswick School Department by Sandy Hook Promise, a national nonprofit that was founded and is led by family members whose loved ones were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. The nonprofit has trained more than 14 million educators, parents, and students nationwide to recognize the warning signs of potential violence.