See Something, Say Something

See something, say something. A vigilant college student acted quickly when she read a threat against a school in an online chat room. Thankfully, the attack was stopped before it even happened.
On April 14, 2013, Zoe Burch, a sophomore at Kent State University who had been ALICE trained, reported an online threat targeting a Pennsylvania High School. The threat was neutralized before the event happened, and no one was hurt. Zoe was honored for taking action and preventing the attack. Ohio Homeland Security representative Andrew Stefanik said, “Burch’s actions display the significance of people reporting something when they see something.” He also said, “Far too often, I think, people are worried that maybe something is a non-issue, or someone is just trying to vent or blow off some steam, but in this case, it happened to be that real threat and luckily we were able to take some action on that thanks to Zoe’s efforts,” Stefanik said. This incident proves the importance of reporting suspicious activities. It is always better to be safe than sorry.