FBI PRESS RELEASE

Seattle Field Office

FBI | 1110 3rd Avenue | Seattle, WA 98101

January 7, 2008

Contact: Robbie Burroughs
206 262-2509

Local Area Middle School Students To Be Recognized For Their Internet Safety Prowess

Two Everett middle schools proved their internet safety prowess by scoring highest among other middle schools nationally in an internet safety program backed by the FBI and Nova Southeastern University.

Cavelero Mid High-School achieved the highest scores for the November edition of the FBI-SOS ( Safe Online Surfing) Internet Challenge, followed by Lake Stevens Middle School in December. Cavelero was the first school to participate in Washington State and will be recognized by representatives from the FBI and Nova Southeastern University in an event on January 8 at 10:30am. The ceremony will take place at the school which is located at 8220 24 th Street SE, Everett, WA. A second recognition ceremony will take place at noon on January 8 at Lake Stevens Middle School which is located at 1031 91 st Ave SE, Everett, WA.

Both Schools worked with a group of Lake Stevens High School students to learn about the FBI-SOS program. A total of 11 Lake Stevens High School students in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) program adopted the FBI-SOS program in September. They learned the program, developed lesson plans and in November went out and taught the middle school students at Cavelero and Lake Stevens about the FBI-SOS. The program was discovered by Lake Stevens High School FCCLA teacher Kathy Hahn, who saw a public service announcement for the program taped by Judge Marilyn Milian of The People’s Court.

“Having the high school students teach this information at the middle school is a good example of the power of peer teaching.” said Hahn.

The FBI-SOS Internet Challenge is a joint partnership between Nova Southeastern University and the Miami FBI Crimes Against Children Unit. This monthly program is administered at NSU’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services and is designed to give middle school students tips to avoid dangerous situations on the Internet, specifically Internet predators. The program is offered to middle schools nationwide, and consists of a pre-quiz to test students’ current knowledge of the Internet, a scavenger hunt to teach them tips on how to surf the Web safely, and a post-quiz to see how much they learned. At the end of each month the school that has accumulated the most quiz points is declared the National winner and is presented with the National FBI-SOS Trophy by an FBI Special Agent.

To date approximately 15,000 middle school students have participated in the program in 13 states.

For more information about the FBI-SOS program, please log on to www.fbi-sos.org.

The media is invited to attend these events at the schools. FBI and Nova Southeastern University representatives will be available to answer questions about the program.