Abilene High School

Each year in the United States, almost 50,000 people take their own lives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the 2021 suicide rate for high school-aged youths ages 14-18 was around 9 percent per 100,000 children, making it the third-leading cause of death among students in that age group.

However, when the issue of suicide hits home as it did for the Abilene High School Student Council, it becomes more than just a statistic. It becomes personal, fueling the desire to bring more attention to the subject.

Awareness surrounding suicide and its causes has increased recently, thanks in part to the establishment in 2008 of September as National Suicide Prevention Month. September has become a time to acknowledge those affected by suicide, raise awareness, and connect individuals with suicidal thoughts and tendencies to treatment services.

This year, the AHS Student Council used an entire week to bring attention to Suicide Prevention Month. The week was filled with various activities, including creating a mural, handing out suicide prevention bracelets, and wearing the colors of suicide prevention (teal and purple). The flash point for this campaign came last year when a member of the student council lost a parent to suicide. Sarah Fagala – in her fifth year as a teacher at AHS and second year as the Student Council advisor – also lost a family member to suicide, making activities her group performs during Suicide Prevention Month more personal for everyone.

“This feels more personal this year because it’s home for many of us,” Fagala said. “We wanted to take what we did last year and make it a bigger deal on campus and bring as much awareness as we could to the issue of suicide and how we can prevent it.”

Last year, the Student Council used one day to try and raise awareness. But this year’s group came up with a week’s worth of activities inspired by a concept from Student Council member Te’Niyah Lee to create an eagle mural. The mural would be decorated with feathers signed by students to let those on campus who might be struggling with suicidal thoughts know that there are other students who care about their situation.

“The eagle is a physical representation of everyone who pledged to support the cause and support suicide prevention,” AHS Student Council president Brenna Barbarick said. “That eagle and the long chain we created with student names are now hanging in the hallway as a reminder of the pledges we all made together. It’s also a reminder to those struggling that people on this campus care about them and that there are resources that can help them with whatever they might be going through.”

AHS Student Council Vice President Skylar Young – a senior this year who wants to major in Art History in college – was put in charge of drawing the eagle and prepping it for hundreds of pieces of paper cut to look like bird feathers to be placed on the drawing. On each of those feathers is the name of a student who stopped by the Student Council table on their way to the cafeteria or going to class as a reminder of campus-wide care for those who might be struggling.

“Students like being involved, and this was an easy way for that to happen,” Young said. “This is an issue that affects o many people, and I think we can all agree that it’s something everyone needs to be aware of and take seriously. I’ve heard really good things from my friends about the week and the awareness it brought about.”

Barbarick said the message she hoped fellow students would hear is that the Eagles have a community ready to help each other.

“Not everyone is struggling with the same thing, but everyone is going through something,” she said. “We wanted to communicate through the eagle and the chain and the bracelets and the week of awareness that we are here for each other, and everyone wants to help those who need it. But we can’t fight this with just one person. We must unite as a school and community to take this on.”

Now that this year’s group has established a week of activities to bring awareness to the situation, it’s something they hope next year’s Student Council and those in the future will continue.

“And I think they will,” Barbarick said. “I think this meant a lot to everyone who participated. The easiest thing we can do is spread awareness of the problem and make sure that people who are struggling with suicidal thoughts know there are people they can talk to, numbers they can call, or places they can go to get help. But it also teaches the people around them to be aware and look for signs of someone struggling with those thoughts.”

Fagala agreed that bringing the issue into the open and removing the stigmas attached to it makes it easier for people struggling with suicidal thoughts to talk about their problems.

“Sometimes it’s scary to ask someone how they’re doing and to want an honest answer from them,” she said. “It’s even scarier to ask directly if they’re having suicidal thoughts because that’s a scary question to ask with implications of an answer we don’t want to hear. But it’s important to know the resources that people can point them to, and that’s what we tried to do: make people aware of what’s going on around them, let those struggling know they’re cared for, and make sure everyone knows there are resources to help.”

NOTE: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the 988 Lifeline by simply dialing 9-8-8. The Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Your conversations are free and confidential.