Protecto

Protect our children. The simplest of solutions paves the way for a greater generation.

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Inspiration

One day, I was in my living room, and I heard the news of a school shooting. I saw the scene - a group of elementary schoolers were all hiding under desks, or under their dead classmates’ bodies. A brave student, by the name of Amerie Jo Garza, tried to call 911, but was then shot. This is the story of Robb Elementary School in Olvade, Texas, on May 24, 2022. I was shaken. I could not believe that this was the state of the United States. We were in a crisis, and in a society where there was no escape to these situations. But it didn’t stop. As I keep hearing the news, I see how each week there is news of how students, teachers, and parents are living their lives in fear because this tragedy is constantly happening over and over and over again, and we are unable to find a way to stop it. School, which should be the light of education, the place where students should feel safe and prosper, are now becoming zones of school shootings, where young lives are unfairly being taken. Since 1999, over 338,000 children’s lives have been lost to gun violence. Each shooting that happens never fails to stagger me, and every single community in the United States can feel the fear and panic inside of them when they hear about these shootings. The trauma that students face when they witness the school shootings has left emotional scars on the survivors that may never go away in their lifetime. It is not a problem - it is an epidemic that is spreading to every single school in the United States. But then I also realized that children around the world are also effected by the devastating effects of gun violence, whether it be in schools or in a public space. The longer we wait to stop it, the more lives we are putting at risk. I decided that we couldn’t wait any longer. And that is why I created Protecto.

What it does

Protecto is an revolutionary Android App that is the solution to this crisis. It works to strengthen the communication between schools and the police, make our students more aware of school shootings, and allows our school staff to be more aware of their schools’ situation. The app is a safe haven for students, that is designed to handle the situation step by step. They are able to communicate with a chatbot that will tell them whether they are under a threat of gun violence depending on their responses, they are able to submit a questionnaire to their counselors that automatically calculates whether they are under a low, moderate, or high risk of gun violence. This app includes a social platform where students are able to send a help message to the rest of their classmates when they believe they are under threat, and has an immediate emergency feature, when used, will alert the police with their location and description of the situation through an sms, and immediately call them as well, giving the student the option to directly talk to the police if they are able to in under 3 seconds. This app is the app of tomorrow, and we need to use this app to protect our future generation.

How we built it

I built this app in Android Studio, and my main goal was to make sure I implement all of the ideas that I had in mind. I used Stack Overflow, Firebase tutorials, and other websites to make the best product possible.

Challenges we ran into

A lot of the code that I wanted to make had to work around the fact that Android API and SDK require a lot of permissions when an action has to be performed without user consent. So, making the SMS be sent, creating the call, and tracking the location of the user took a lot of time to work around

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am extremely proud of making an app that will help safe the future generation. Along with the United States, other places in the world are facing issues where children become exposed to gun violence and are helpless. Therefore, I feel content that I made an app that worked towards protecting our children.

What we learned

I learned that the user end of an app cannot tell the entire story. It takes a lot of time to make an app and get it to work, but when it does, it feels like a blessing. It is an honor to know that I wanted to make an app that would serve and protect others, and that it was able to work.

What's next for Protecto

I want Protecto to become even bigger. I think along with children, we can work to make this app protect a larger population. Another major group that is affected by gun violence are women, as they feel extremely vulnerable in households where weapons are used. Making the app more equipped to contact the police without a click of a button would be the next major step.

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