Wake County student turns school safety concerns into action | #schoolsaftey #kids #parents #children

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Keeping children safe at school means more than preparing for the worst. For one Wake County sixth-grader and her mother, it also means making sure young people have a place to speak about the challenges they face.Rebekah Tisdale has been attending Neuse River Middle School since August. She said moving into middle school has exposed her to things she did not see in elementary school.”I’m just seeing new things that I never seen in elementary, so it’s kind of like, wow,” Rebekah said.She described seeing students selling vapes in bathrooms, putting vapes in toilets, and getting into fights.”I’m just seeing more fights,” she said.Rebekah said she has been involved in fights herself but has learned from those experiences.”I’ve been in fights where I learned from the fights that you can’t always go at a person. You just have to walk away. If they still hit you, you have to use defense and hit them back,” she said.Rebekah said she believes young people are not always being heard and that it could be a reason some are acting out. She started Voices for the Youth, a group designed to give young people a place to be seen and heard.Her mother, Rebecca Tisdale, supports the effort.”No one’s listening to them, and they need to be heard, you know, and then they start finding themselves,” Tisdale said.The family’s push for safer spaces comes as communities continue looking for ways to prevent youth violence.Wednesday is National SAVE Day, which stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere. The observance, part of America’s Safe Schools Week, focuses on violence prevention and the role young people can play in creating safer schools.”These are our children. We know our children. We have experience. We need to show them experience or we need, you know, to talk to the kids at least once a week. Try to engage that in school,” Tisdale said.The family’s concerns come as state data shows a drop in reported crime and violence in schools. But the Tisdales say the numbers do not tell the full story of what some students experience.Tisdale said the effects of youth violence are personal.”I’ve seen so much with the youth. It breaks my heart. In 2017, I went to 56 funerals of either my friends or kids. Just out there getting killed, period. You know?” she said.Mother and daughter are now working to make sure young people have safe spaces in and outside school.”They have a lot of, you know, emotional pain. And that’s why I feel hearing your child’s voice is important,” Tisdale said.ABC11 reached out to Wake County Public Schools to learn how the district is working to create safer spaces for students. During America’s Safe Schools Week, Tisdale said keeping children safe is a shared responsibility that includes the community.Download the ABC11 News appCopyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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