By Evan Norris, Staff Writer — In today’s world, it has become important to say something when a comment or phrase is suspicious. In recent years, many tragic events have occurred due to things posted on social media. A prime example of this is the Chardon school shooting. There was hinted information to this shooting put on social media before the event occurred. Events like these and many more can be prevented with the Say Something movement. Their goal is for students, teachers, parents, administrators, and law enforcement to say something if something does not feel or sound right, in the end potentially halting a dangerous situation.

Say something hopes to become a word that crosses everyone’s mind when they see a unguarded bag, a suspicious tweet or something that just seems out of place. If people say something there is a chance that there is nothing to the situation, or it will result in the saving of people’s lives.

Many are promoting the “Say Something” movement throughout schools. This movement can be spread throughout a school in many ways. Students can be taught to say something through school assemblies, one on one conversations with officials, and even teacher conversations in the classroom.

This past month, The Ohio State University experienced a very dangerous situation. Prior to the event freshmanAbdul Razak Ali Artan was linked to some very suspicious posts through his Facebook account. This ended up leading to an attack on many of the universities students. The result of this attack led to 11 students being hospitalized. There is very high possibility that if someone were to have notified a professor, parent oradministrator that this could have been prevented.

Although saying something is extremely important when it comes to school safety and preventing tragic accidents at schools, there are plenty of more scenarios where it is important to say something. Domestic violence and bullying are two things that happen an absurd amount of times in the world today. It is so crucial to say something if you hear or see anything that does not seem or sound right when it comes to these two situations. If something is not said many negatives results can come from these two situations.

As time has progressed, there are many things that have occurred in everyday life in which something needs to be said and acted on. In the past decade there have been a significant amount of tragedies that have occurred, and that could have been prevented if someone would have said something. These tragedies come from school attacks, domestic violence, and even bullying. With the help of the “Say Something” movement it is promoting better communication throughout the community and in schools if something does not seem right. Remember, if you see something, say something.

[Updated Aug. 20, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]