In recent years, the issues relating to keeping our youth safe have garnered significant attention. These challenges affect the well-being of our students and the overall health of our educational environment. As an educator, I am deeply committed to creating safe and supportive schools where every student can thrive. Addressing these critical issues requires a comprehensive approach involving educators, parents, administrators, and the community. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: BULLYING: In my experience, many schools claim to have zero-tolerance policies for bullying, but few of them actually enforce them. Schools must adopt robust anti-bullying policies that clearly define unacceptable behavior, outline consequences, and then FOLLOW THROUGH with those consequences without government interference. SAFETY: While addressing emotional and psychological safety, schools must also focus on physical security measures. This includes secure entry points, surveillance systems, and emergency preparedness plans. We must also be vigilant in encouraging students who see something to say something. SUICIDE AND MENTAL HEALTH: While many schools provide counseling, I’ve witnessed many students with severe mental health issues who have not received the help they need. After confronting administrators about this, I’ve often been told, “We’re aware of the problem, but there’s very little we can do.” This is unacceptable. Serious conversations and changes need to be made in order to prevent wasted futures and loss of life. If we say we care about our children, our education system needs to prove it by not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. HELPING STUDENTS FIND THEIR PURPOSE: Studies have shown that young people often turn to drugs, alcohol and violence to fill an emptiness inside them. I believe that a lack of purpose and meaning in life is driving our youth to all of the above-listed problems. After taking my 14 year-old on a service project to Haiti in 2018, I saw an unexpected transformation in her. She began relying less on social media and material items for happiness. Since then she has spoken often to our friends and family about the drastic differences in the culture, language, food, personalities, and of course, the extreme poverty. What stood out to her the most was, despite the lack of food and everyday necessities that we take for granted, those children had something that we as Americans lack…JOY. Not a joy that comes from smart phones, cars or name brand clothes. Instead she saw a joy that comes from using an empty water bottle as a soccer ball, or being hugged by a new group of people who want to share their culture with you, or learning something they’d never heard before in a classroom with no windows, or computers, or running water. That joy pierced through her heart and gave her a new vision of what the world is really like and what her purpose is in being part of that world. My vision is to create programs for Utah students that require them to serve others in their communities and around the world. Whether it’s volunteering in homeless shelters, feeding premature babies in hospitals, cleaning up our rivers and wilderness areas, or building a school in a third-world country, our children need to experience life outside of their homes and outside of their technology. The initial costs of creating such programs may be substantial, but the long-term savings for security, suicide prevention, medications, medical staff, and law enforcement programs will more than pay for themselves in a very short amount of time. And of course, the lives that will be saved and the futures that will be brightened will be the biggest payoff of all. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I absolutely believe this is true and I believe this idea can forever transform the lives of our children.