Jackson Free Press

Editor's Note: The date of the Contact training has been corrected in the story below.

Quiet mumbling filled the air as more than 200 parents, teachers and members of the community searched for seats in the small room of the E911 building in Brandon. Local TV crews situated their cameras and tripods in the back corners of the room, while journalists, pens in hand, sat among the crowd in foldout chairs. Regardless of their role on that April morning, everyone was there looking for answers to the same questions: What is happening to our children? What can we do to help them?

Between January and April of this year, five area children took their own lives. Ranging in ages from 12 to 17, the youngest attended school in Byram. One attended Jackson Prep. Three of those five young people were students at Brandon High School.

"None of them fit the mold that you hear about," said George Gilreath, principal of Brandon High School. "All three of them were bright students who were outgoing and involved in school activities."

The credentials of the three young people support his words: Honor Roll, athletics, ROTC and Beta Club, just to name a few.

Teenagers experience strong feelings of stress, confusion, self-doubt, pressure to succeed, financial uncertainty and other fears, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Divorce, and adjusting to the formation of a new family with step parents and possibly step-siblings, can be unsettling and can intensify the pressure.

"Looking back, I was over involved with school activities as a teenager," recalls 38-year-old "Lisa" (not her real name). "It took years for me to understand why I was so involved. It was an escape from my life at home."

Growing up in an alcoholic home with parents going through a bad divorce, as a 16-year-old, Lisa was a cheerleader, played softball, was a member of the student council, a member of the school's performing choir, president of the thespians/drama club and held a part-time job. "I think that I was looking for any reason not to go home," she says.

Eventually, Lisa, like her mother, began to drink. Loneliness and fear fed her anger, and Lisa's school suspended her for fighting. She cried all of the time and felt confused and sad.

"I had no idea what to do with the pain that I was feeling," Lisa says. "I just wanted to die. I just wanted the pain to end."

"Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain," writes David L. Conroy, in "Out of the Nightmare."

It wasn't until Lisa began to starve herself that her parents finally realized she was in trouble. They set out to get Lisa the help she needed.

"Do you think about killing yourself?" the first therapist asked her.

"Every day," Lisa admitted.

By the time she was on her fourth or fifth therapist, they were suggesting hospitalization. Lisa cried and promised them she'd get better.

"I just wanted to be normal," Lisa says, shaking her head. "The problem is, when we are young, we don't realize that there really is no such thing as 'normal.' I spent so much time in those developing years depressed and trying to figure out how to end my life. I'm just grateful that I survived myself."

"People are afraid to talk about it," says Peter Meyers, President of Contact the Crisis Line. "They're afraid that if they bring up the topic of suicide with their child, that it will plant the idea of suicide in their child's head. This just isn't the case." Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-to-24-year-olds and the sixth leading cause of death among 5-to-14-year-olds, according to The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Teresa Mosley of Clinton suffered her own loss last year when her daughter Elisabeth hung herself in her closet during the night. According to the Biloxi Sun Herald, she spoke openly about her experience at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in in Gautier.

Like Peter Myers, Mosley agrees that in our society, people don't want to talk about mental illness let alone talk about suicide. She also believes that our schools are a key component to preventing other parents from suffering the same loss that she has.

After the first suicide at Brandon High School earlier this year, Principal George Gilreath said that clergy and social workers were immediately called to counsel students and faculty. Gilreath also quickly contacted specialist Tina Brooks from North Carolina to come train staff and faculty on how to recognize and deal with potentially troubled students. But the second and third students committed suicide before she arrived.

__________

In the United States, someone dies by suicide every 16 minutes. Mississippi ranks 23rd in the nation in its rate of suicidal death, according to Contact the Crisis Line.

In 2004, "Out of the Darkness"—community walks organized to support The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention—kicked off in numerous U.S. cities. This year, communities nationwide are holding some 100 of the three-to five-mile walks, which are AFSP's signature fund-raising and awareness events. According to its Web site, afsp.org, the ASFP is the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, reaching out to people with mood disorders and those affected by suicide.

No communities in Mississippi are on the AFSP walk list yet, but you can organize a walk by contacting Mike Lamma, AFSP director of field management, at [e-mail missing].

If you are interested in learning some simple, life-changing skills, you may want to consider volunteer training for Contact the Crisis Line. Classes meet weekly at St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson beginning Sept. 18. For more information, contact Dorothy Triplett, vice president for public relations and training at 601-982-9888.

Previous Comments

ID

95594

Comment

Good article. I particularly like the way it ends by listing things that you can do to help.

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-09-13T15:50:58-06:00

ID

95595

Comment

Yes, that's not the way a journalistic piece typically ends, as you know. But I made an exception being that it's Suicide Prevention Week, and this is such an important issue.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-13T16:02:41-06:00

ID

95596

Comment

Very glad you did. Contact is a great organization!

Author

Tom Head

Date

2007-09-13T16:15:19-06:00

ID

95597

Comment

Being a suicide survivor myself, this topic always gets to me. It's good to know that such an organization exists. No communities in Mississippi are on the AFSP walk list yet, but you can organize a walk by contacting Mike Lamma, AFSP director of field management, at [email][email protected].[/email] I think this would be a great thing for the JFP to take on. I already do the walk for NAMI, so I don't know if I should dive into that or not.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-13T18:20:06-06:00

ID

95598

Comment

Yes, I've had suicide in my family, too, L.W., and there's nothing quite like that grief. We should indeed organize a walk. Want to ask him what we have to do?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-13T18:35:36-06:00

ID

95599

Comment

I just sent an email. I'll let you know what he says.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-13T22:43:40-06:00

ID

95600

Comment

About ten years ago, someone in the Miss. Public Safety Commissioner's office told me that Mississippi under-reports suicides to a significant degree, comparatively. Also, maybe I missed it in the article, but it is my understanding that gay and lesbian teens account for almost a third or more of teen suicides - even in the San Francisco Bay area. The stigma and intolerance regarding homosexuality, even in this day of so-called enlightenment, is still unbearable to many. Maybe you could look into this critical aspect of suicide, as well.

Author

LeftCoast

Date

2007-09-15T09:06:37-06:00

ID

95601

Comment

Candy, terrific job on this piece. You handled this serious issue with sensitivity; it was very provocative and informative. From a 101 and 202 friend.

Author

J.T.

Date

2007-09-15T17:42:09-06:00

ID

95602

Comment

This is a good story. I had a horrrible suicide in my family. Ive got a lot on my plate with other causes but i'll walk and do what else i can to get involved. keep us posted on the walk and what we need to do. GLBT teenage suicides are a horrible problem, Leftcoast, and one not talked about enough. that would a good story to do too. I could probably help pull togehter some resouces nationally to help out. Let me check my rolodex. how can I reach Candy or should i just email the jfp?

Author

Queen

Date

2007-09-15T21:28:44-06:00

ID

95603

Comment

Thanks for your offer to help provide research about GLBT suicides, Queen. It would be interesting JFP reading and important to publicize this terrible problem among teens. If it's bad in the San Francisco area, I would think it must be at least as bad in the South.

Author

LeftCoast

Date

2007-09-16T11:53:53-06:00

ID

95604

Comment

LeftCoast brings up an important point - social ostracism. Teenagers tending to be really insecure, ostracism can only confirm in their mind that they are not 'normal' (refering to "Lisa's" statement in the article). Mainstream youth culture is so soaked in this commercialized media propaganda saying you have to be "cool" (read: charisma, sex appeal, athletic ability, etc.) in order to be worth more than gum that sticks to your shoes. This does incredible damage to our youth culture. After all, children and teens already are overly concerned about having the "right" image to begin with (this is besides LeftCoast's bringing up GLBT youth!). Under all this pressure, is it any wonder that so many kids, especially those who feel out of the loop, snap and take the ultimate step?

Author

Philip

Date

2007-09-16T22:30:55-06:00

ID

95605

Comment

Great article, Candy. One problem I have is dealing with the fact that children are not screened across the board in our school. There is a Social Worker at Morrison School here in Jackson who has done some extensive work with a program out of Columbia University called "TeenScreen." It is a voluntary program with parental concent. The focus is on signs and symptoms of emotional disturbances, alcohol and other drug abuse and ideations/attempts at suicide. The need for more Social Worker and for the role of Counselors to be more specialized and inclusive in our schools is critical. Most of the JPS Counselors focus on schedules. This is good but does absolutely nothing to address the issue of young people living in situations that they preceive as untenable. Our drug problem is out of contol and MS has far too many cases of HIV/AIDS.

Author

justjess

Date

2007-09-17T10:19:11-06:00

ID

95606

Comment

One problem I have is dealing with the fact that children are not screened across the board in our school. There is a Social Worker at Morrison School here in Jackson who has done some extensive work with a program out of Columbia University called "TeenScreen." I would like to see this across the board, too, but that is a challenge when some parents are afraid of their children being labeled and put on a prescription.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-17T10:26:42-06:00

ID

95607

Comment

We must first deal with the parents. There is such a great need for education re to this subject. Parents would be given the information about signs and symptoms of suicide to include vicarious signs and symptoms. Parents should also be given thought provoking scenarios, i.e., " You say that you are afraid of your child being labeled and put on a prescription, right." But, how do you think you will feel if your child was not given a label and was not on medication and ended up committing SUICIDE? We must come together and deliver remedy for our children to live better lives.

Author

justjess

Date

2007-09-17T13:56:44-06:00

ID

95608

Comment

I agree that education is the key. There are plenty of resources out there. For one thing, I think the mainstream media needs to step up to the plate and bring more attention to it.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-17T16:45:17-06:00

ID

95609

Comment

On behalf of the Jackson Public School District, Catholic Charities, MS Department of Mental Health, and Jackson State University's Applied Psychological Services, I appauld Ms. Hagwood for shining light on this most important issue of mental health and more specifically, teen suicide. For the past five years, the Jackson Public Schools has implemented a nationally recognized evidence-based program, "TeenScreen," in several of its schools. The insturment was developed by a group of researchers in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psycharity at Columbia University, located in New York City, New York. This program is a participant in a national partnership. Participation in the program is voluntary. TeenScreen requires written consent from the parents and students. Individuals who choose to participate in the screening complete a ten minute questionaire. Students who indicate signs and sympthoms of mental health problems meet with a clinician. Based upon the findings during the clinical interview, the clinician will make a recommendation for further evaluation, or report that further evaluation is not needed. Case management services provide the screening results to parents and link parents with community based resources. The screening staff are licenced professionals with extensive experience in mental health services. Our hearts go our to the families who's loved ones saw suicide as an only option. If you would like further information about the JPSD TeenScreen program contact, (601) 987-4949 between the hours of 7:30am and 3:30pm or e-mail [email][email protected][/email]

Author

gstam

Date

2007-09-18T11:00:36-06:00

ID

95610

Comment

I agree with you, L.W. We're not done on this. Or on domestic violence. Get ready. I'm tired of so many women and children in this state being lost with so little attention to it.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-18T11:19:28-06:00

ID

95611

Comment

Thanks for the info, gstam. I'm sure parents will benefit from that information. Donna, I didn't get a reply to my email yet.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-18T13:12:29-06:00

ID

95612

Comment

You and 15,000 other people. ;-) On this topic?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-09-18T13:17:43-06:00

ID

95613

Comment

I mean from AFSP about doing a walk. I haven't heard anything yet.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-09-18T13:29:25-06:00