Students leading the way: Hampshire Regional pioneers first peer-led online safety program

WESTHAMPTON — Who is teaching kids how to safely browse social media, video games and the internet? This past month at Hampshire Regional High School, it has been high schoolers who have taken the lead in mentoring middle schoolers, as the first school in the area to pioneer such a peer-led initiative.

Hampshire Regional High School (HRHS) is the first school in the county to host the program, SMART Mentors for Online Safety, in partnership with the nonprofit, the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) of Hampshire County.

Starting in early January, HRHS students in grades 10 through 12 were trained to give an online safety lesson to seventh graders, aiming to give younger students the tools to recognize and respond to online harm.

“It feels amazing,” said HRHS sophomore Taylan McColgan in an interview with the Gazette, about being able to help younger students. “Especially because, since we were just that age, like two, three, four years ago, it’s nice that we can … help prevent what could have happened when we didn’t have this (program).”

McColgan was one of 20 peer mentors at the final meeting of the program that took place on Tuesday in the counseling center of HRHS. April Igneri, director of prevention and outreach at the CAC, guided the debrief session, asking the older mentors to reflect on their experience.

“We really appreciate you guys being patient with us as we figure out this process and being our cornerstone to start this out, and we’re super proud of you,” Igneri said to the students.

According to the CAC, the SMART program — Safe, Meet, Accept, Reliable and Tell — is an evidence-based and age-appropriate curriculum developed by the nationally-recognized nonprofit organization ChildHelp, which is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse.

Igneri told the Gazette that HRHS was an ideal starting point in Hampshire County since the school already had a peer mentoring program in place. With feedback from the students, she said she wants to improve the free-of-charge program in hopes of expanding to other local schools.

“Teens are far more likely to listen to their peers than to adults — especially when it comes to online behavior,” Igneri said in a statement. “This program puts students in leadership roles, equipping them to share real-life skills and help their peers respond safely if they encounter trouble online.”

Through the program, Igneri and other CAC members led four training sessions for the older students, preparing them to give a slideshow presentation to all 134 HRHS seventh graders. The older mentors broke off into teams of two and three, presenting to roughly 20 younger students for each team.

The presentation provided students with strategies for protecting personal information, using caution when interacting with people met online, avoiding suspicious links or requests, and knowing when and how to tell a trusted adult if something feels wrong. It also challenged younger students to put themselves into hypothetical scenarios, walking them through proactive strategies for handling uncomfortable or risky online encounters.

“When we had those scenarios and when we got them (the younger students) talking among themselves, is when at least I saw the most engagement,” HRHS Senior Augustus Niswonger said during the debrief.

McColgan, Niswonger and HRHS 11th grader Elyse Campbell sat with the Gazette after the debrief to discuss some of the topics mentioned in their groups. They said topics ranged, but many discussed avoiding talking to people you just met online, sending any photos to those people and how to use social media appropriately. Niswonger said his group also discussed safe use of artificial intelligence.

“Some groups talked about individual apps, like us specifically talked about how you can manage private accounts, like Instagram,” Campbell said. “We asked if people (the younger students) had private accounts to just see if people are already thinking about that.”

Campbell also noted that while many of the discussions centered on avoiding strangers online, it is important to watch out for red flags from peers as well.

“Even though they’re middle schoolers, they’re still in a building with people all the way up to senior year.” Campbell said.

McColgan said with his group, he made sure to emphasize that it is okay to use social media and be online, emphasizing that a “digital footprint” will remain.

“We’re not saying shut down. We’re not saying take yourself out of the world. We’re just saying take a step back, take a breath, be careful on what you do.”

HRHS Counselor Julia Low-Chappell said programs like these are exactly what is needed for young students. She hopes the program will help the younger students to be more cautious online and identify red flags. But most importantly she hopes it makes it easier for students to ask for help.

“Over the years, we’ve seen an increase in student reporting of unsafe behavior online,” Low-Chappell said in a statement. “Many of our students are engaging in games and social media that allow them access to strangers all over the world.”

According to the CAC, online sextortion — when someone is threatened or coerced into sending explicit images online — and harassment continue to be on the rise among young people. Current data shows that one in five teens will experience some form of sextortion, and nearly half will encounter online harassment.

Igneri and Low-Chappell said their primary hope is that students can understand when something makes them feel uncomfortable, it is important to remove themselves from the situation then seek advice. Igneri said studies show that a lot of kids don’t speak up because they’re afraid of consequences, but students should always feel comfortable to seek counsel from trusted adults.

As part of the program, a true or false style survey was given to the seventh graders before and after their lessons with older mentors. One of the prompts read, “If someone posts a very private picture that you shared with just that person, it’s your own fault for sharing it in the first place.”

Before the presentation, only 9.4% of students disagreed with the statement. However, after the peer-led lesson, that number grew to 63.9%, as students realized they were not at fault for another person’s breach of trust.

“For them to know that it’s not their fault and to reach out and get help is huge,” Igneri said.

While this program focused on online safety, HRHS and the CAC engage in several other programs throughout grade levels.

HRHS Principal Lauren Hotz lauded the work of the older mentors in helping pioneer the program, saying that communication and collaboration is exactly what teachers do to improve and foster education.

“I feel like I’m sitting right now with teachers because this conversation that you guys just had is the conversations that we actually have with teachers too,” Hotz said to the students. “And I am so grateful that you guys did this because I think the seventh graders had a great experience.”

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