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Safety and Violence Education (SAVE) Students Act

Also known as the SAVE Students Act, Ohio House Bill 123 requires annual suicide awareness and prevention, violence prevention, and social inclusion education for students in grades six through twelve. Each school year, students must receive at least one hour (or one standard class period) of evidence-based instruction in each of these three areas. Big Walnut Local Schools meets these requirements through the programming described below.

Social Inclusion

Big Walnut Local Schools participates in Start with Hello, a national program that helps prevent social isolation, school violence, and self-harm by educating and empowering students to connect with one another and promoting a sense of belonging. Our elementary and intermediate buildings hold their "Start With Hello" week each September, and the middle school and high school hold theirs each October.

Suicide Awareness and Prevention

Grades 6, 8, 10, 11, & 12
Students in these grades receive suicide prevention education through Erika's Lighthouse, an evidence-based program that builds mental health awareness, reduces stigma, and helps students recognize the signs of depression in themselves and others.
 

Grades 7 & 9
Students in grades seven and nine participate in the Signs of Suicide (SOS) program. Big Walnut school counselors, along with prevention educators from the Delaware County Helpline, deliver the program materials over two days. Parents may elect to have their student complete an optional depression screener as part of the programming. 

Violence Prevention

Big Walnut Local Schools encourages families to have important conversations about school safety and preventing violence, and observes Say Something Week — a week celebrating the importance of trusted adults and upstanders in the school community. Say Something is a national program that teaches students to recognize the warning signs of someone at risk of harming themselves or others, to take threats seriously, and to know how to get help or report concerns. Students can report dangerous, violent, threatening, or potentially harmful activity to a trusted adult — a parent, teacher, coach, counselor, or school resource officer — or use the district's anonymous reporting tool, the Safer Ohio School Tip Line.