Feb. 14, 2018. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A fire alarm goes off, students pour out of classrooms and into the hallways, hurrying to exit the building. Gunshots are heard. Another school shooting… this time 17 lay dead.

  Dec. 14, 2012. 9:30 am. The doors were shut tight and locked at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The gunfire echoes through the front of the building. Huddled together in closets, classrooms, and nearby bathrooms, students hid and waited. When it was over, 26 students and staff members were dead.

  Due to the tragedy, parents of the Sandy Hook victims created a program called Say Something. This is the biggest outreach program for awareness that teaches people the signs of someone who is thinking of harming a school or institution. Their mission statement reads: “Prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide, and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.”

  Towne Lake felt the surreal terror of these crimes when two Etowah  students were arrested last semester for allegedly making plans to endanger and harm other students.

  “We need to have something to give our kids some tools, and things to look for and listen for to prevent anything like this in the future,” Robert Horn, principal, said.

  Since then, Cherokee County has been making changes to ensure all of its schools are safe. Horn recently brought the Say Something program to Etowah, so teachers and students are aware and able to spot possible signs of another event happening.

“People definitely need to know what to do to spot those things and know what to do if it happens,” Brett Lamonte, junior, said.

  Before winter break, the school trained the teachers on the new program, and then the TAA teachers introduced it to students with a video at the start of the second semester. The video was an introduction to what the program is about, and statistics on similar events happening in the United States.

  “This is definitely a program that will continue and become part of our TAA curriculum at the beginning of next school year,” Michelle Dowd, counselor, said.

  Say Something is a program offering free resources to anyone interested to help make all communities safer. To find out more, go to www.sandyhookpromise.org to find more resources for yourself and to share with your family.