At the very school once attended by Jacob Wetterling, students today are continuing to advocate for child safety.

“Even if we could help one person avoid this issue that would be enough, because that’s one person who didn’t have to go through it,” said Shyla Gordon, a 9th grader at Apollo High School in St. Cloud, who participates in Future Problem Solving, an extracurricular activity that encourages students to develop their own solutions for community problems.

Gordon and her teammate, Apollo senior Fatuma Hassan, welcomed the chance to “have a voice” when it came to a community crisis. The choice of crisis, for them, was easy: They wanted to tackle online safety.

“A lot of our peers had an experience of being groomed online,” Hassan said.

Gordon chimed in: “Most people have gotten really creepy text messages from strangers, but if you respond, it can go way farther and it can look a bunch of different ways.”

After a full year of research – including interviews with safety experts, law enforcement and lawmakers – the team developed their own online safety curriculum. And that very project received the highest possible honors at an international Future Problem Solving competition, with the team earning a first-place finish in their division, along with the “Beyonder Award” – a rare honor selected from all categories and only awarded if a project meets exceptional standards.

“They said it was so far beyond what other projects usually are,” said the team’s teacher and Future Problem Solving advisor, Karlyn Doyle.

Doyle added: “We’ve met many wonderful judges and evaluators over the years, but I’ve never been thanked. And we actually had an evaluator thank us.”

And perhaps you can trace that gratitude back to the legacy of another student who once walked the halls of St. Cloud schools.

Outside St. Cloud’s North Junior High – where the Future Problem Solving team meets – an ash tree towers over a plaque with a simple inscription: “This area is dedicated to our friend Jacob and other missing children.”

Indeed, the dedication represents what became a movement that started nearly 35 years ago. In the weeks, months and years after Jacob’s kidnapping in 1989, his classmates decided to channel their grief, fear and anger into action. They held rallies and fundraisers, hoping to support the search for their lost friend and the family and friends he left behind.

“It reminds me of my friends and I saying this is a real big problem, we don’t feel safe. What can we do about it?” recalls Alison Feigh, one of Jacob’s friends, about those earliest days after Jacob’s disappearance.

Feigh was able to lean into both her personal and professional experience – she’s the director of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center – when asked to consult Gordon and Hassan.

“I’m doing my best to help open some doors for them. But they were doing a phenomenal job, as well. So this wasn’t someone coming in as a superhero to fix anything. They knew exactly what they were doing and they had a good game plan with their teacher and their advisor,” Feigh said, adding that she remains “so thankful” for teachers – then and today – who support their students.

“[The students] are rolling up their sleeves, and they’re making the world better for their peers and for themselves, and I just think that that’s so, so powerful,” she said.

And Feigh wasn’t the only person offering her perspective on this project.

Reached at her home in St. Joseph, Minn., Patty Wetterling praises the work of the St. Cloud student-leaders.

“They’re bright, they’re insightful. And they’re taking on a huge challenging problem for youth today,” Wetterling told KARE 11’s Karla Hult.

Wetterling – who joined Feigh in meeting with Gordon and Hassan – knew the students could add a vital voice to the problem of predatory behavior that continues to evolve within new technology.

And within that work, Wetterling also saw evidence of her son’s legacy and the potential for children to change the world.

“It’s so the way it should be: when good people pull together, amazing things can happen. And I think our world is kind of missing that right now. We need to pull together. And maybe the kids will lead the way, I believe that they can,” Wetterling said.

Hassan and Gordon researched the threat of online grooming – and possible solutions – by talking with experts and advocates, including groups like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Child Advocacy Center and the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, now part of the Zero Abuse Project.

The students then developed their curriculum – “Who’s On the Other Side?” – to, in Gordon’s words: “help teach people.”

“We decided it would be best to separate each lesson based on grade, because not everybody’s at the same maturity,” Gordon added, noting that they included more color, cartoon characters and different words for the younger ages.

The curriculum is offered at a few different age levels: 3rd through 5th grades, 6th through 8th grades, high school, and lessons for adults. And the topics fall under five categories: What is child grooming, gaming, social media, who supports you, and how to report.

Gordon and Hassan say the lessons are intentionally short – under 20 minutes – and vetted by experts. They include videos, questions, teacher’s notes and links to other resources and, best of all, Hassan said, “it’s completely free.”

“We wanted people to be aware of what’s happening to help prevent it,” Gordon said.

And with that desire to prevent harm against children, the team honors the legacy of another student still changing the world.

“[This curriculum] will help people, especially young people, better understand how to maintain their own personal safety when they’re online,” said their teacher, Karlyn Doyle.

And the proud teacher then added: “How can you, like, not be so proud of what they’re doing and what they’ve achieved?”

To learn more about the curriculum or to access it for your own classroom or group, just send an email to: eaglecmps@isd742.org.

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