Raising Awareness: School Safety and Social Media

As a parent, I've faced the heart-wrenching ordeal of school lockdowns, living in constant fear for my child's safety. Join me, Charli Chanté, as I open up about my personal experiences and frustrations with gun violence in schools on this emotionally charged episode of The Gag Is Podcast. We reflect on the devastating effect recent school shootings have on students, families, and entire communities, underscoring the urgent need for collective awareness and action. This discussion isn't just a call to arms; it's a plea for the safety of our children and the sanctity of their learning environments.

But the challenges our kids face aren't limited to physical threats. Social media is wreaking havoc on their mental health, pushing them towards harmful behaviors for the sake of online validation. I share alarming trends and personal anecdotes that highlight the emotional toll on both teens and their parents, as schools ramp up security measures to protect students. We address the crucial role of open communication between parents and children, offering strategies to help navigate these digital age pitfalls effectively.

Wrapping up, we tackle the necessity for accountability and transparency in dealing with school threats. Frustration boils over as we discuss the lack of consequences for students making false threats, often seeking attention through dangerous and reckless behavior. This episode serves as a wake-up call, stressing the importance of serious conversations about the real-world impact of these actions. Before we close, I invite you to engage with our community by visiting our YouTube channel, leaving comments, and rating the podcast on your favorite platforms. Join me every Friday for new episodes of The Gag Is Podcast, and thank you for your unwavering support!

Chapters

• 0:00 School Shootings and Gun Violence Discussion
• 8:31 Social Media Impact on Teen's Health
• 18:16 Ending Violence in Schools
• 31:35 Podcast Listener Engagement Strategy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to the Gag Is podcast. I am your girl, charli Chanté. Thank you for joining me on another episode. Happy Friday to you. If you are watching this, you're probably like girl, what are you doing? I'm having a little technical difficulties here in the current moment, but we're going to get it together. Oh there, we go. All right, got it together. Oh there, we go, all right, got it together. I'm together now. Thank you guys for joining me for another episode. Uh, I greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:06

On this good here friday. Who? We? Oh we, oh we, oh we. Um, this is gonna be another banger. This is gonna be another good one. So grab your drinks, grab your snacks, because we need to dive. We just need to go ahead and dive into it, because that's where we're at. I hope you're doing good. I hope you had a good week.

Speaker 1: 1:26

It's the weekend. Hopefully you have plans of rest and relaxation or, if you, like me, you got kids sports. New Face has his first swim meet this weekend and I'm super duper excited. However, new Face is hurt right now, so, um, and we're not sure exactly what it is, so he more than likely won't be participating in his first one made this weekend. Um, and then he has like a couple more coming up, like in this following week. So we're going to see how this go. He injured his foot, but that ain't nothing new.

Speaker 1: 2:03

I digress, but let's go ahead and get into today's topic. I have to. If you see me looking down, it's because I'm looking at my counter, because I think there's some kind of thing that you can't like cuss within the first five minutes. So, trying to hold it together, because I always try to talk about stuff that I'm passionate about, and very rarely do I talk about stuff that is like current, current. So typically, when you guys get the episodes, the episodes have already been recorded and so they're recorded up to a month in advance, right? So it's very rare that I record an episode in what I consider to be real time. So this episode it's Friday, but this episode is being recorded this week, has been recorded this week.

Speaker 1: 3:04

So I just wanted to talk about something that just it just bothers me, it just burns me up, it makes me sad, it makes me frustrated, it makes me sad, it makes me frustrated, it makes me hurt, it just gives me just a range of emotions and I don't like it. And if I don't like it. I know y'all don't like it. So, like I always say, if I'm feeling it or I'm going through a thing, you guys are too, and I will say before we get started and before you heard the episode, you heard the viewer discretion. So, again, if you just happen to fast forward past that part of the day here, I'm going to go ahead and issue a viewer and listener discretionary advisory because we're going to be talking about a topic that is very sensitive in nature, not too much intended for kids, and it could also be a trigger warning for some, which is crazy because it's a trigger warning for me. But here I am, I'm going to talk about it. So, if you don't like topics that deal with guns excuse me, guns and violence then this episode is probably not going to be for you. So I'll let you go ahead and click off right now, because this episode not going to be for you.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Going on, as we've seen that school has just started and we have already been plagued with our first school shooting, which resulted in deaths, and we we only five weeks into school and it's very sad because it's a lot of people senior year, you know these kids are happy to be back in school to see their friends that they haven't seen all school year, all summer long and, most importantly, they're there to get an education. And someone has taken it upon themselves to, unfortunately, be upset and take the lives of others. For no, oh my gosh, going through it this morning and decided to take the lives of others, nobody that they knew, and things like that, and so I'm using that to bring me to what I want to say get off my chest per se. Now that that has happened. It seems like every day that there's a report that School on lockdown threat called in Kids bringing guns to school, stuff going around on social media. And it's just crazy. Because we just got here. We've been in school four, five weeks, some even two or three weeks, just depending on where you live. Here in Florida they've been in school since second week of August. Progress reports that came out. That's how deep in the school year we are.

Speaker 1: 6:39

It's very disheartening to hear about kids getting caught with guns at school. It's very disheartening to get. Just yesterday I got an email, phone call and text that my son's school was on lockdown because there was a social media post going around that somebody was going to shoot up the school. Like I said, I really hate talking about political topics like this because people try to make them so political. So everything that you hear me talk about is my own view. These are not the views of anyone else or anything like that. These are the views of anyone else or anything like that. These are the views of Charlie.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Okay, it's very disheartening because, for one as a parent, you hear about all the school shootings and everything and then you hear about it happening like threats and stuff happening at your child's school, like threats and stuff happening at your child's school, and you instantly go into that fight or flight because you're kind of like, okay, is this real? Or, you know, are people just playing? And how many times do I have to go into fight or flight about my child Because other people's children think it's a game, because other people's children think it's okay to play with things like that. People's children think it's okay to traumatize their friends and you can't sit here and say, well, they're not intentionally traumatizing their friends. You couldn't sit here and say that. But if you're passing around a social media post and saying that I heard there's gonna be a school shooting or I'm gonna shoot up the school or whatever. You don't think that impacts your friends directly, your child's friends directly. Why?

Speaker 1: 8:32

I don't understand why kids are self-sabotaging what I'll say other people's mental health on the basis of social media likes. Because where my mind goes is what are you trying to accomplish out of this? Because you are 12, 13, 14, 15 years old doing this kind of stuff. You ain't even been alive that long. You got the rest of your life to live, but you can't live it because you didn't mess it up, because you thought it was cool to share or make a social social media post about harming other people at school. So now you're life gone because who finna let you with they school? Who finna let you on they job? Who finna give you some opportunities? All because you wanted some likes on social media. You wanted people to like you. That ain't the way to do it. So now you got these kids who y'all are. So now you got these kids who y'all are.

Speaker 1: 9:49

People are literally robbing kids of their childhood. People are literally ripping the best, what I consider to be some of the best years of your life from under people. Because Because you want to be liked, I can speak for myself. High school was a time. Okay, a time was had. Okay, we ain't gonna talk about it, but a time was had. And y'all are robbing kids of what could. So they can't be in my spot in 20, 30 years going you know what high school time was at. But they can't because they scared that they might die at school.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Because somebody think it's funny, somebody want to make jokes, and then it's kind of like we don't understand why kids are vaping. We don't understand why kids are vaping. We don't understand why kids are smoking. We don't understand why kids are drinking and doing drugs. Yes, we do. We don't understand why there's a high incident rate of depression and anxiety in teens. You know why? Because they stupid ass classmates is inflicting it on them All. For some damn social media likes. Ain't nothing on this free internet? Ain't nobody on this free internet that I'm trying to impress? I ain't even trying to impress nobody off the internet, to be honest with you.

Speaker 1: 11:26

But to intentionally do stuff to inflict harm upon others and to cause chaos and fear in others is just crazy. But you wonder why your parents can't come eat lunch with you and bring you lunch. You wonder why so many things are so strict and so secure because y'all literally made it like that. Like my son's first. We went to his first high school game. He's like mom, it's my first high school game. I want to go.

Speaker 1: 12:02

They only sold 250 tickets because they didn't want a mass crowd there, because they didn't know what was going to happen and we had to literally beg and plead. They literally had to do a flash sale in order for people to get tickets. They was like we finna do this flash sale for one hour. You either get your ticket or you don't. All because we had to try so hard to keep kids safe. And what I always tell people is it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Now again, these is my views and my views alone. These kids go to school and they're supposed to go to school to learn, to get an education right, but the only thing these kids have learned is how to protect yourself when somebody's shooting and how to take a damn test. That's all they're doing. It's like being institutionalized. It's like they're robots. They know how to hide from a shooter and what to do if they face with a shooter and take a damn test. So they know how to do it. Why does, does my child like? Why? Why are these only two things like I'm excited for, like clubs and different stuff like that. But no, my, my child trying to, my child has been learning how to stay alive in school. All because your child think the shit funny, nothing funny.

Speaker 1: 13:27

I don't like, I don't do, did not have any perception of like death is real. You can't come back from that. Ok, you could not come back from that, but why would you traumatize, why would you traumatize other people like that? Why would you traumatize other people like that? And I always try to. I always wonder, because not everybody and not every child has the best home environment or stuff like that. But does your child need that much attention where they will stage something like this just to get some attention from you, the parent? Because it makes me like, do parents really not talk to their kids? Because this is the part that I wonder and I feel bad.

Speaker 1: 14:27

I feel like you know, I'd be like you know well, maybe you know like when my kids come home every day I talk to like LJ, he'd be like he asked me, he how your day was, my mom was your day, and we also talk during the day, you know, um, so you know, I remember it was last school year, right here they have these little badge things and if you press it and hold it or whatever, it'll send the school into lockdown because they'll be like active shooter, whatever, whatever, right. So the thing came on and I just happened to be picking him up from school that day and the thing came on and it was like active shooter, seek shelter, run, hide, fight, whatever, whatever. And I'll never forget, new Face sent me a text. He said Mom, he said is this missile? And we got an active shooter going on right now during dismissal, which is very, which can very happen. You know what I'm saying Because you had the most exposure to kids.

Speaker 1: 15:33

And he said they told me to run and hide and if confronted, I need to fight. I love you, mom, if that did not tear me to pieces because I was so close to him but I couldn't help him at the same time. But then we finally figured out that the teacher had it around their neck and they, accidentally, they were doing something, they leaned on it and it held it for too long and it activated. It, activated it. Oh my god, like that was like the most scariest. Oh my god, that, like it was, that was just the most scary. And I don't like guns, I hate guns, no, but getting that message from your child, that is just crazy. And then I remember when he got in the car he was just like, so in shock, and I was like, are you okay? How are you? You good? But he was just so numb and he told me. He said mom. He said I can't even enjoy school. He said because people play too much and you, you never know who's being real and who's not. Like you never know.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Um, when somebody is, you know, know, being serious, and it's kind of like what? What fascination do these people, do these kids have with killing kids or just killing people in general? Uh, I don't understand what the fascination is. And you know, are we at a point now as parents where we don't talk to our kids? I often wonder that. And then, after you, because I feel like these kids do this, and then they'll be like, oh, I made the post, like ain't nothing going to happen. They're going to be like okay, charlie, don't do, do that no more. You know, you, you're scaring the hoes. And then they don't realize that you have permanent consequences now, because now you finna end up on lists. You don't want to end up on, because now if you go somewhere you ain't supposed to be, they're gonna be looking, they're gonna be like ain't you on such and such list? So you've pretty much just washed your, you, you.

Speaker 1: 18:17

I'm depending on the judge because I feel like they need to start setting examples out of these kids, like y'all think this shit is funny, but it's not like. Start making example out of these kids. There used to be a thing where they didn't show if they was under 18, they didn't show their mugshot. Start showing these damn kids faces, cause we need to know who he is. We didn't know who these kids is, because if they transfer and they go to another school or something like that, we need to know who the hell this child is, cause all they gonna do is just kick kid out of whatever district they in and then they're going to send them to another district. But guess what? If I see Lil Johnny on TV or Lil Suzanne on TV, because they make false threats, okay, when they come to my school, I know, hey, is anybody tracking this kid? But it's just so sad. My heart just goes out to these kids, because these kids don't ask for this.

Speaker 1: 19:17

These kids got forever anxiety and you can sit there and say, oh well, they can go anywhere and you know they can be confronted with violence. You're right, you're 1000% right. But why the hell they got to be confronted with it when they just trying to get an education? Like, I just don't get it and it just, it just hurts my heart, like.

Speaker 1: 19:46

And then when I got the message yesterday for my son at school, I was like okay, okay, and it was kind of like do I fight or flight or do I? What do I do? And so I text text New Face. I said, hey, so how's it going? He's like I'm good, mom. And then, and I was like okay, and I was like how your day going? He's like it's good. He's like how your day going? I was like my day's going good. Thank you for asking, cause I just needed to check the temperature. I need to check the temperature and see how he was doing. And it's just so very sad that I have to have these conversations with him.

Speaker 1: 20:34

And then I can say, from when I used to teach, one thing that I don't miss is doing those active shooter drills with with them. I don't miss that at all With With them. I don't miss that at all and as someone who has survived Two mass shootings, I look at this shit a little differently. Nobody wants to be, nobody wants to be In an environment where there is an active shooter because you don't know what's going to happen. And the second time it happened, I just happened to be with New Face and I was stuck in my car for eight hours with him and the only thing that saved us was I had just one girl shopping. So we have food in the car, but that's not something that I and he was so little that he doesn't even remember it and it just and it just messes you up.

Speaker 1: 21:40

You know that like it's crazy to say like this is the new norm and something like this should not be the new norm. Like you know, when we were in high school, we were TPN and doing stuff like that. You know, like just silly stuff. You know, putting sour stuff in drinks and different stuff like that. We weren't literally trying to take each other out. Like, just because you don't want to have a future, don't mean you got to rob other people of having a future. It just, it just is not fair because you're throwing your life away. Now your parents have to deal with that. And then you've taken somebody's life because you wanted some clicks and likes and now that family's devastated. So it's a lose-lose situation and social media is a hell of a drug.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Like y'all doing this on social media for views and likes cause you trying to draw traffic to your page. There's other things that you can do to do that, but literally threatening innocent people's lives because you think the shit is funny, there'll never be anything funny about that, and I mean ever, ever, ever, oh, my goodness, ever. So today, what I'm asking please, please, have a conversation with your children. Please let your kids know that nothing about dying is funny. Nothing about saying you're going to kill people is funny. Sharing clips on social media about someone else wanting to harm other people there's nothing funny in that.

Speaker 1: 23:51

You, if you share stuff like that, you are part of the problem. You are part of the problem. You are at school to learn and to get an education. You are not there for likes and popularity. Okay, parents, just have a conversation with your kids, man. Just let them know like this is real life, and real life come with real consequences. I don't give a damn what you see on TV. This is real life with real consequences. Okay, because kids y'all these kids don't know your consequences can mess your parents up, especially if your parent, like these kids, their parents, can have these good ass job and have security clearances. And guess what? Now your child done, shared some stuff on social media and created a post talking about they're gonna shoot up the school. Now your mom and daddy ain't got no job because you thought it was cool to share something on social media for likes so that you could get some attention. And now your parents is out of a job because guess what, their child can't be trusted. So if I can't trust your child, I can't be trusted. So if I can't trust your child, I can't trust you either. Yeah, this is real life.

Speaker 1: 25:09

If Larissa ever thought he wanted to say he going to fight somebody online, do y'all understand? I can't even say it on here, because y'all might try to take me to court and call CPS on me. Oh, that boy ass. Because y'all might try to take me to court and call CPS on me. Oh, that boy ass. Just as simple as that. Nothing about that is cool. Nothing about that is cool.

Speaker 1: 25:35

And as parents, we need to step up and we need to do more. Yes, I know we busy. I know that. Yes, I know we work. Yes, I wish we had 30 hours in a day, but we only got 24. Yes, I am tired and I want to go to sleep and I want to take a nap. Yes, but I also know that I need to be a parent to my child and I know that I need to have regular conversations with my child so that I can raise my child to be an outstanding human being, a person who exhibits care, compassion and empathy for others. I am not raising my child to be a menace. Then you can say, oh well, I raised my child this way. Oh, you're right, you did raise your child this way. But at 12 and 13 years old, I'm going to need for you they're not grown. You still got some raising to do.

Speaker 1: 26:34

I walk in my kid's room, door closed or not, because what bill you pay, bro? I'm going to walk in there. I'm going to have a conversation. I look at what my child look into. I okay the stuff that he look at because I know that he not going to be like oh, this is. I know he not finna, go out here and GTA nobody, but I just want the social media threads, the guns, the violence in schools. I just want it to stop.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Nobody should lose their parent, because we have had parent, the teachers and stuff that have you know, unfortunately lost their lives while trying to protect their students. While trying to protect their students, nobody should lose an adult. Nobody should lose a child, all because somebody thinks it's funny or they think it's a game or they have hate in their heart. Because the kids want to get an education but they can't get an education. Where every other day, you're threatening their life, you can't do that. That's not cool. I don't know me.

Speaker 1: 27:46

So if there are any kids listening to this, kids making threats in post are not cool. I don't care who told you it's cool. I don't care who told you to do it, because you ain't gonna get in trouble. They lying to you. You will get in trouble. They lying to you. You will get in trouble. You are throwing your life away to be popular with some people who ain't going to know your ass in three years. Don't do it. Get an education. Make something of yourself. Get an education. Make something of yourself. If you need help, ask, say something to somebody, but don't torture your classmates because you think shit is funny. Don't do that, it's not cool. Okay, be a cool kid, be a leader, but not in that way, because when you do stuff like that, you're not a leader, you're a follower.

Speaker 1: 28:53

Parents, take some time with your kids. I know, like I said, I know we all tired. I work before the sun come up and then when I get off from work I gotta come straight home, pick the board, potato board, take the boy to swim, okay so, and I don't get home till like eight o'clock, so I literally be out the house for like 14, 16 hours. So I understand you tired, but take some time and talk to your kids so that we can get a hold of these youth. It's going to take a little time. The same amount of time you take on social media scrolling, the same amount of time you can take to have a conversation with your child about social media, ok. So I just needed to get that off my chest today. I just need to get that off my chest today, but because it's just, it was burning me up, it's burning me up, so I wanted to get that off my chest, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:46

But next week it's a doozy for y'all Cause we got um, um, uh, we got a anniversary episode. So, um, you know, going to be good to go. It's going to be so much fun. I can't wait, and I don't even know how long that episode is going to be. I'm looking for the song lyric of the week today, like I had it in my head, but I want to tell y'all correctly the name of the song. But next week is going to be a doozy. I don't know how long it's going to be, probably going to be an hour long episode because it's the anniversary episode and it's just going to be a good time next week. So I don't have, considering the nature of today's episode, I don't have any.

Speaker 1: 30:43

You can't make this up. I feel like we have some serious business to handle today. So there is no, you can't make this up, but I will give you a song lyric of the week. So the song lyric of the week is Jadakiss Y. If you have never heard that song, please go listen to that song. Very good song. So, again, song lyric of the week is Jada Kiss. Why? Featuring Anthony Hamilton.

Speaker 1: 31:08

If you have not already, please make sure you are following us on social media at thegagispot. You can follow my personal page at smartfit underscore oaky YouTube. Make sure that you are following us at thegagisp. It's the gag is pod. Um. All of that is linked down below. If you want to send us an email because you want to collab or do anything like that, the email is down here somewhere right here, um, and it's also contained in the description box.

Speaker 1: 31:36

And, last but not leastly, not leastly, last but not least, if you are listening to this, after you listen to this, make sure you go over to YouTube so we can get those views up. Also, make sure you are downloading and leaving a comment and a review after you listen to the episodes. If you don't want to leave a comment, just make sure that you rate it so that we can grow up on the charts. Apple, spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast app. All right, we've come to the end of our episode. Thank you for joining me on another Friday. I am your girl, charlie Shante. This is the Gag Is Podcast. Bye, guys.