Rico Sharp received an active-shooter alert about his son's school. Since Columbine, there have been 386 school shootings affecting 360,000 students. He created a curriculum teaching students and staff to recognize warning signs, de-escalate conflict, and report threats.
Chapters
Hi, it's Rico Sharp. I'm gonna get right to the point. I remember getting a phone call while driving down the street one day, and the phone call was an automated call saying that there is an active shooter on campus at your son's school. The fear, the panic, and the uncertainty That surged through my veins at that moment was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. My heart dropped. My breath was taken immediately, and I felt like I was in a whole nother realm. Time stopped, and all I could do was pray immediately for my son's safety and for every other child. at that school safety. And I rushed to the school as quick as I could possibly get my car to go so that I could be there by my son's side to make sure that my son would survive that day. Tragically, there was a loss of life that day, and I have lived with the thought of what can I do, what can be done to prevent these senseless school shootings. And it's sad. It breaks my heart, and I'm sure it breaks your heart too. Every time you turn on the news and you hear that there was a school shooting and kids have been murdered, innocent young lives taken from us at 6 years old, 7 years old, 9, 10, 11, teenagers, young adults, schools, teachers, and faculty members that put their lives in harm's way to educate and to protect our children, and their lives are taken. That should never be the case. That should never happen. But the sad reality is that is the day and the time that we live in. And I feel like we can't wait for Congress. We can't wait for our lawmakers to put a ban on assault rifles and to restrict people from being able to buy guns that have mental problems. We, we have to do something. And I said to myself, Rico, what can you do? And I thought about my platform and my speaking career where I'm speaking in schools and I'm speaking in colleges and I'm talking to students and I'm talking to team leaders and teachers. And I am sharing from my heart how to succeed in an educational way, how to be empowered academically. And I'm grateful for the platform to do that, but that's more than I can do. That's, that's not all that I could do. So what I did is I sat down and dedicated countless hours, days, and weeks putting together a curriculum called Breaking the Silence and Stopping School Violence. And this curriculum is designed to empower Safety and security before the next school shooting takes place. Oftentimes when the school shooting takes place, we get behind the shooting and try to put together a plan and do whatever we can to make amends for what has happened, to comfort those who are lost, to console family members, to try to figure out what can be done. But I want to get in front of the next school shooting and prevent the next school shooting from happening. And that's what this curriculum is designed to do. It's designed to educate our students on how to go to school and identify with the red flags. It's designed to teach our children how to know how to understand the language when someone is talking to them and making threats and speaking out in a violent way, proposing to do something. It gives them the tools to be able to make intelligent decisions to get the help that they need immediately and not take other people's threats for granted. But not only does it educate and empower the students to be able to read the signs, but it also empowers the students to know how to provoke other students To know how not to provoke other students to go out there and do something wrong because they're angry and upset. But it doesn't stop with the students. I've also created part of this booklet to educate and empower the parents to know what to look for in the home to be able to put an end to their child thinking like this and feeling certain ways that leads to their decision to go to school and take out their anger and frustration on innocent kids and innocent teachers. But it also empowers— this curriculum also empowers the teachers and the faculty members as to what to do and to get ahead of the next school shooting, what to look for, what language to understand, what signs to look for so that we can put an end to these type of school shootings. Man, listen, one more is way too many. Do you not know that since Columbine, which happened 25 years ago, there has been 360,000 kids that have been exposed to school shootings? Do you not know that since Columbine, there has been 386 school shootings in our country? Yes. Our country, the greatest country on earth, the United States of America. The United States of America has experienced 386 school shootings since Columbine, and 360 students have been affected. Schools like Uvalde, Parkland, schools like Olympic Hopeful, other schools like Chicago King College, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And the list just goes on and on and on and on and on, and it's too many to name. Too many precious innocent lives have been lost, and I know we can't bring them back. But what we can do is we can prevent the next one from being taken. We can prevent the next life from being taken. There's a formula, there's a format, there's a strategy, there's a There's a solution to being able to put an end to school shootings. I know there is. There has to be. God would not leave us without a solution to deal with school shootings, to prevent these lives from being taken, and to save the lives of our sons and daughters. And I feel like that I have an answer. I feel like that this is something that can help contribute. To the safety of our students. And what I'm on a mission to do now is to get this curriculum into every single school across the country and beyond. I'm on a mission to put this curriculum into the hands of every student in school in the United States of America and into the hand of every teacher, every faculty members. There's so much knowledge in education, so much information, and the system that I've established is guaranteed to work. All I need is an opportunity to get it in the hands of our students and our teachers. Listen, what won't we do to save the lives of our kids? I believe that every principal, every school board need to set a demand on getting this book. If you want this book, you You can contact me and I will work it out so that you can get a book for every student. I will work it out so that you can get a book for every school. I think it's worth it. I think that anytime anyone does anything to help save lives, that is something that we ought to consider. I tell you this right here, we can't afford to know that this is available and do nothing with it. We can't afford to turn our head. We can't afford to act like it doesn't exist, like this problem does not exist. It's more than a problem. It's an epidemic. And I believe that it's time to break the silence and stop the school violence and stop school shootings. And I teach the kids how to say something, how to open up. You know, there is this, this little cold of silence that is brought on through fear. And that fear is that Snitches get stitches. But I'm coming against that. And I have this saying, which is, yelping is helping. And yelping means to cry out. It means to say something. And that's what I do. I tell the students, I teach the students how to identify the flags, how to see something, how to say something, how to do something, and not take for granted when someone else is making a threat about something that they're going to do. We cannot take for granted what's happening in someone's mind, whether it is a mental health issue, whether it is anger, whether they're tired of being bullied, whether they feel like they're not getting enough attention at home, whether they feel like their life is not worth living, whether they're suicidal, whether they just are dealing with murderous thoughts. There are signs, and I found this out through my research, that in every school shooting there is a common denominator, and that common denominator is that there were signs that Whoever did that shooting, whoever perpetrated the shooting, there were signs that they gave either on social media or at home or at school to say that I'm about to explode. I'm about to go off like a ticking time bomb. But the signs were not read. The signs were not taken seriously. The signs were ignored. And now some people, they don't know the signs, but I want to teach you the signs and help you to understand because we're going to save lives. We're going to do it one way or the other. And I'm going to do everything that I can to get these curriculums in every school, every middle school, every high school, every college, every elementary school, every grade school, every school of higher learning, every private school, every Christian school. I want this curriculum to be in every student's hand and in every teacher's hand. so that we can join hands and save lives. And together we can. This is Rico Sharp. You can go to my website and see information on my website about this curriculum. You can call me at 321-262-8871. You can email me at ricosharp.org. And my website address— I'm sorry, ricosharp.org is my website, but my email— RicoSharp.org. It's ricosharp@icloud.com. Let's make it happen. Let's get it done. Let's save lives and let's do it together. So the final thing I want to say is to those of you who are in the school system, in the educational system, whether you are superintendent, a principal, assistant principal, dean, an executive director, an associate director, whether you work for the school board, Whatever your position is, please, please help me to help our students. Help me to get this book, this curriculum, in the hands of our students. This is a lifesaver. And if you want me to come and speak about what I have and speak to the students and encourage and empower the students, I'm ready to do that. Call me, email me, visit my website. If you want me to come to your school and do some safety workshops and train on how to identify signs and how to leap into action before, I'm ready to do that. My name is Rico Sharp. I'm one person, but I'm giving it all I've got, and I'm ready to make a difference. God bless you. Stay safe. School is going to be starting back here in about 4 or 5 weeks from the summer break, and our kids are going to be going back to school. And I need to get the ball rolling before they— their feet touch the campus to make sure that we are prepared to do all that we can and that we're going to start the year off with putting this curriculum in our students' hands so that they can go forward and be safe. It's not enough just to go to school and get an education. We want them to come home and get a future. God bless you. I'm Rico Sharp. God bless you.
