The members of Revere’s SAVE Promise Club stayed after school and wrote positive messages on sticky notes for every single locker in the school. The notes had phrases such as “be yourself!” “protect each other,” “be kind” and many more. Revere students walked into school the next morning and saw the sticky notes: a reminder to all that everyone has people who care about them and that violence is never the answer to any problem. 

The SAVE Promise Club members dedicated themselves to promoting school safety and positivity during their first year together. 

This year, SAVE Promise has done several larger projects for the school including Starts With Hello Week, Safe Schools Week, National School Violence Prevention Week and National SAFE Promise Week.

The club typically met once or twice a month and will start meetings back up again next school year.

SAVE stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere. It is a nationally recognized club that stemmed from the Sandy Hook Promise. On December 14th 2012, twenty-eight students and teachers were killed during a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. After this horrific event, parents founded the Sandy Hook Promise, aiming to prevent school violence and create a safer school environment. SAVE Promise has about 153,000 members nationwide, and those numbers continue to grow as more schools open up chapters of the club. 

Revere’s at-risk student coordinator Bonnie Simonelli serves as the adviser of this new club. 

Simonelli explained how SAVE Promise made its way to Revere. 

“Meredith Stein is our president and founding member. It was her idea to do this club here. . . . She wanted to spread awareness and found SAVE Promise underneath that umbrella, and it worked well for Revere because it is nationally recognized,” Simonelli said. 

Stein explained why she wanted to start a chapter of SAVE Promise at Revere. 

“I wanted to bring SAVE to Revere because they had a lot of activities and good initiatives that the Revere Schools Foundation wanted to implement in the school district, and in order to get their resources, we needed to start a club, so I offered,” she said. 

Stein initially found out about SAVE Promise through the Revere Schools Foundation and wanted to build a program like that at Revere. 

Putting sticky notes on the lockers was Simonelli and Stein’s idea for the club’s end of year project. Simonelli explained the idea behind this project.

“We wanted to do something for the end of this year to keep awareness going for safe schools. We had something else in mind, and then I said, ‘The sticky notes might be something that is more personal’,” she said.

Many of the sticky notes read, “See Something, Say Something.” This phrase was born on September 12th, 2001- the day following the September 11th attacks. The phrase turned into a national campaign, aiming to raise awareness and urging people to speak up if they see any suspicious activity.

Revere superintendent Dr. Michael Tefs spoke on how the See Something, Say Something campaign relates to schools.

“It’s an incredibly well researched program. . . The research, from my understanding, is that no one knows more than our students. They created a campaign where our students can talk to somebody if they are seeing, hearing, or feeling something that just doesn’t feel right. [The See Something, Say Something Campaign] is a pretty comprehensive approach to what we mean by a safe and healthy environment,” he said. 

Tefs described what school safety means to him.

“We all know that safety in our schools is our number one priority. And that’s not just physical safety; It’s [also] social, emotional and mental health safety as well. . . . We feel like our students will do their best academically when they’re in an environment. . . that is a good place for [kids] to grow and develop as people,” he said. 

Tefs described how he feels about the Revere Schools Foundation and their work in the district. 

“I think they are a terrific partner for the Revere Local Schools. What they do for our district and our students. . . is absolutely amazing. The value [added by] the Revere Schools Foundation is like I have rarely seen in schools and communities,” Tefs said. 

The Revere Schools Foundation The Revere Schools Foundation is a partner of and is financially supportive of the SAVE Promise Club. The Revere Schools Foundation also helps to fund the SAVE Promise club for some of their projects. SAVE Promise ran a photo booth to engage with students while bringing awareness. 

School resource officer Scott Dressler spoke about how the Revere Schools Foundation helps to ensure school safety.

“See Something, Say Something is something the Revere Schools Foundation funds most of and is very supportive of. . . The [Revere] Schools Foundation is very instrumental in safety and security in the district, and this is their main campaign,” Dressler said. 

There are many measures taken to implement the See Something, Say Something strategy. On the Revere Local Schools website, people are able to anonymously report a safety threat. The Ohio Safe Schools Tipline is a twenty-four hour service allowing for people to confidentially alert about details of a threat any hour of the day. 

Dressler explained how the Tipline works. 

“If you see something or hear of something, you can report it anonymously to the Tipline. . . . You can text it or call and leave a voicemail and they will notify [someone]. There is a list of people that get notified when the tip comes in, and I am on that list. Twenty-four hours a day we will get notified of the threat, tip or anonymous complaint and we will start looking into it immediately,” he said. 

In its first year as a club at Revere, SAVE Promise Club has done many things to spread awareness about school safety and spread positivity throughout the Revere community. Both SAVE Promise Club and the Revere Schools Foundation work to create a safe school environment for all.