A tight-knit community in northwestern Michigan is reeling after a string of student suicides, according to reports.
The village of Kingsley, which is home to 1,600 people, is looking for answers in the wake of three students’ deaths over the course of eight months, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
Kingsley School District was first rocked in June by the suicide of 16-year-old DeAnte Blane. Then four months later, 14-year-old Kayden Stone’s death sent the town again into a state of grief.
Now, hundreds have come together to mourn 14-year-old Shealynn Pobuda, who took her own life earlier this month, the newspaper reported.
“The death of any student takes a big toll on the school, and the passing of any child greatly affects the whole community,” superintendent Keith Smith told the Record-Eagle. “When we had the first one coming out of school, that certainly shocked us. Before we got back in school, we had the second one, and that really put us back on our heels. Then we had this one. Each one is unbelievable in and of itself.”
Smith said Shaelynn’s death Feb. 3 was a breaking point in what he describes as a “Norman Rockwell-esque, all-American small town.”
“I sat down and cried for an hour,” he told the Washington Post. “I just can’t take any more of this… you just get overcome with emotions.”
The school district has teamed up with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to include more outreach in the curriculum. Other efforts include parent events to increase awareness.
“If there is a parent out there who thinks they’re exempt from this, they’re naive and maybe a little ignorant — because it could be their kid tomorrow,” Kayden’s father, Bill Stone, told the Record-Eagle. “My kid was one of the most unlikely candidates you could ever think of, yet here I am.”
The issue Kingsley is grappling with reflects a national trend. The suicide rate has spiked dramatically in kids ages 10 to 17 years old, increasing 70 percent between 2006 and 20016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We just have to make sure we have systems in place at all schools, not just Kingsley,” school psychologist Marv Nordeen told the Record-Eagle.
Be the first to comment