It happens much more than people think: Kids bringing weapons to school. "My student advisory committee tells me that I would be amazed," said Bobbie Gutierrez, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools.

To help combat the problem, the New Mexico Public Education Department started a program in November called Speak Up New Mexico — a hot line for anonymously reporting violence. The program, however, hasn't been widely utilized.

A three-month Generation Next investigation found it lacks sufficient advertising and that many students are not aware of the program.

"Its major role is to prevent violence or harm to others in the community," said Douglas Conwell, the emergency-management specialist at Santa Fe Public Schools.

Anybody who feels threatened, either by a weapon or by violence, can call 1-866-SPEAK-UP and anonymously report it to a live, trained counselor. The counselor then notifies the local police department and school administrators.

"Having a hot line where students can report (weapons threats) and feel safe about reporting may save a life in the long run," said New Mexico Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia.

Records show that before the campaign's November launch, the hot line received
35 calls. In November and December, when publicity about the program was highest,
108 calls were noted.

Since January, the hot line has received only 36 calls.

In an e-mail, Garcia explained that $230,000 was appropriated in 2007 (Senate Bill 611) for the program. The money was given in a contract with PAX USA — a nonprofit organization that helps fight gun violence — to provide a telephone hot line and advertising campaign in New Mexico.

Almost half of that money, $112,276, went to set up the program, according to Kris Meurer, director of the School and Family Support Bureau of the state Public Education Department.

Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, Generation Next found that PAX USA was paid $117,723 to develop, print and deliver 300,000 wallet cards for all New Mexico high-school students, 20,000 posters for all New Mexico classrooms and 5,000 "customized collateral (i.e. Speak Up Program pens and folders)" by Aug. 15, 2008.

According to Becca Seely, the program manager with PAX USA for the Speak Up New Mexico project, the materials were delivered to all public high schools in New Mexico in November.

"We have not talked to everybody," Seely said in a February interview, "but we have done outreach to some of the larger districts to make sure that they have got them."

Generation Next was unable to contact anybody at Santa Fe High, but the assistant principal at Capital High School, Michael Hagely, reported that they had received about 100 wallet cards and passed them out at the front desk to students. Capital has another 1,000 cards that haven't been distributed. The school didn't receive any posters, he said.

The outreach from the PAX and the Public Education Department to the school districts about the program in general was minimal, according to both students and administration.

"I don't remember receiving much publicity about it even from the Public Education Department," Gutierrez said. "I was not aware of anything having been sent out."

Garcia, however, said the information was sent to all districts and charter schools. "At that point, it's really in the hands of principals and superintendents to make sure that information is available at their high school."

Despite the $117,723 spent on creating advertising and promotional materials, Garcia said it wasn't enough.

"Our problem is that we don't have any money for outreach," Garcia said. "I wish that we had more money for outreach to advertise."

Seely said her organization was in the process of creating a database of contacts for all the districts in New Mexico so that information about threats could be distributed. Hagely said he didn't know whether Santa Fe Public Schools was part of the database yet.

Students at 10 Albuquerque and Northern New Mexico schools, including Capital and Santa Fe High, where unaware of the program and had not seen any promotional material at their schools.

"Sounds familiar, but I am not exactly sure," said Kyla Allmon of East Mountain High School. "I have not heard of it."

Seth Katz of Los Alamos High School said he hadn't heard of the program or seen any promotional materials at his school.

Valerie Willems of Eldorado High School hadn't seen any posters, either.

Students at Taos High School and Pojoaque High School said they have heard of the program.

"We got sent a box of handouts, and we did distribute them through the student council," said Taos Student Body President Mish Rosete. He said they received the box in February.

It is unknown what happened to the other materials that were to be produced under the contract with PAX.

"We'll need to follow up," Garcia said.

Conwell said that's the next order of business for him. "We are going to make sure that we do follow up and make sure all of the principals know (about the program)," he said.

The program remains available to help high-school students fight violence. To report a weapons or bullying threat in school, call 1-866-SPEAK-UP.



Alex Wirth is a sophomore at Santa Fe Prep. You can reach him at AlxWirth@gmail.com.