President, Social Marketing Services, Inc.
Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington
Strategic Advisor, C+C
Social Issue: School Shootings
Social Marketing Strategy: Increasing Bystander Reporting of Potential Threats
Where Sighted: TV News
A local TV News story today was encouraging. It announced the launch of an effort to influence Seattle Public School students to download the SaferWatch app to anonymously report potential school threats. It is similar to one announced in Minnesota the day of the August 27 Minneapolis school shooting. It is encouraging to see another example of the “word being spread” for this protective behavior.
“SEATTLE —
Seattle Public Schools students and staff will soon be able to report school threats quickly through a new program funded by a federal grant.
Starting this fall, SPS will begin to implement the SaferWatch app and computer program. The goal is for students and staff to report any threats before they escalate by flagging suspicious activity through the app, a text, or online.
In the wake of a deadly private school shooting in Minneapolis, parent Tony Mantalto says students are often the first to know about a threat, typically through social media.
“Sadly, after each school shooting you hear people come forward and say, ‘We knew about this,’ or, ‘We heard this piece or that piece,” Montalto explained.
He’s the father of Gina Montalto. She was 14 years old and among the 17 people killed in the Parkland school massacre in Florida in 2018
Photo by Basar Dogan on Unsplash
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