Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) is a new club whose goal is to help students in Canton High School create a safe and more positive environment, in support of Superintendent Kevin Case’s goal to focus on social-emotional health.
We want to reach out to the entire student body and create awareness as to how we can make this world a better place by helping others, encouraging all students to reach out to someone in need, and make positive impacts on people’s lives. To this end, the SAVE club helped with the Start with Hello week last fall at our school.
Everybody goes through difficult times in life, and it is always easier to go through something knowing that there is someone by your side. Sadly, some people do not have someone to support them and oftentimes when they feel severely isolated, they may make decisions that are harmful to others.
When we are blinded by ourselves and our lives, we fail to look outside ourselves. There is a correlation between people who do not have healthy relationships and people who conduct school shootings and those who take their own lives. However, it doesn’t have to stop there. You could be the one to change that. You could be the one friend who saves someone from committing a violent act. The goal of the SAVE club is to help students reach out and pay attention to the needs of others. As part of the SAVE club, we can work together to stop violence and help each other.
There is a saying that says, “Be the person you want in your life.” Reach out to someone because you never know what they are going through. If you are in the majority of students here who have someone they can talk to, pay it forward and be that person for someone else. I say “majority” because if we are completely honest, not everyone has someone they can talk to, but we can change that. If we as a community can be more accepting of one another and help each other, we can reduce violence.