OXFORD, Mich. — Dr. Adelle Cadieux at West Michigan's Helen Devos Children's Hospital says events like Tuesday's deadly shooting at Oxford High School can leave young people feeling a profound loss of control in their lives.
**CLICK HERE to access the OK2SAY form to submit safety concerns**
4 people are now dead, with 7 others injured, in the wake of the shooting in Metro Detroit.
Parents everywhere are now left to help their children make sense of something potentially world-shattering: the idea that they are simply not safe while at school.
“We don't want to pretend that... these things don't happen. We acknowledge, yes, bad things happen," said Dr. Adelle Cadieux, a clinical psychologist with Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.
"But, we follow that up with reassurance.”
OK2SAY is a program that was launched by the attorney general's office in 2014. It is meant to provide an easy and anonymous way for students to report concerns about safety in their school, or for the well-being of others.
“OK2SAY is not about getting kids in trouble, OK2SAY is really about trying to get kids the help they need before a situation turns tragic,” said Mary Gager Drew a program specialist with OK2SAY.
Dr. Cadieux says the knowledge of such a straightforward resource for kids can help bring back some security to their lives.
“Really kind of putting that reality in place, so that we can regain some sense of control of the things that we actually do have control over.”
Since its inception, OK2SAY has received 1,114 tips about potential planned school attacks.
You can check statistics for all of the tips they have so far received at their web page HERE.
“Kids know what's right, and what's wrong," Drew explained to FOX 17 Wednesday.
"So, if kids just have that feeling that something isn't right... let us know.”
You can always leave a tip with OK2SAY completely anonymously.
Watch FOX 17's full interview with Mary Gager Drew of OK2SAY, Michigan’s student safety program, below:
