Students: 'Start Snitching' About Violent Threats

March 24, 2006 — -- They say your clothes make a statement. In this case, the statement is boldly displayed across the chest of students at Mashpee High School in Massachusetts.

After four bomb threats, one fire, and the destruction of 48 lockers at the Cape Cod high school in the last several weeks, some students at the high school are taking matters into their own hands by wearing T-shirts that say "Start Snitching."

"Seventy seniors wore them to school today," Principal Ira Brown said. "It is their way of saying, 'Do the right thing, and we also support those kids who came forward.'"

Seniors at the high school created the T-shirts in response to other students on campus who wore T-shirts saying "Stop Snitching."

"Some of our kids said, 'Wait a minute, that's wrong,'" said Brown, who had put the school in "lockdown mode" as a result of the threats.

The day after Brown offered a $100 reward for information on the incidents, several students came to school wearing "Stop Snitching" T-shirts, which aim to discourage students, in a threatening fashion, from talking to authorities about what they might know about past and future campus violence. Brown said other students were bothered by this and wanted to create a climate of support.

Today was the first day students wore the "Start Snitching" T-shirts. The shirts have an image of a traffic light with the words "Start Snitching" written into the green light.

As a result of the shirts, some students have already come forward with information. Brown said those students did so only after word of the encouraging T-shirts had spread. Some students said they were afraid to come forward because of the potential repercussions, he said.

"[The senior students] are saying that in a society this is what you should be doing, you should be doing the right thing," Brown said. "They have let those values bloom."

Still, other students are still wearing the opposing "Stop Snitching" shirts at Mashpee. They have been asked to take them off or turn them inside out for the remainder of the day.