Chardon Schools Dealing With Six Suicide Attempts
Six Chardon High School students, some suffering from prior emotional problems, have attempted to commit suicide in the aftermath of the Feb. 27 shooting in the high school cafeteria.
Six Chardon High School students, some suffering from prior emotional problems, have attempted to commit suicide in the aftermath of the Feb. 27 shooting in the high school cafeteria.
Superintendent Joe Bergant, who said the suicide attempts have occurred since May, dis-closed them during Monday’s Chardon Schools Board of Education meeting.
Bergant could not discuss the details of the attempted suicides because of a student privacy policy.
Regardless, he said many young people who attempt suicide suffer from depression and other mood disorders or substance ab-use, which can be related to depression.
The substa-nce abuse incl-udes the use of opiates, he ad-ded.
As a result, Bergant said school officials are imple-menting various preventive measures for students emotion-ally affected by the Feb. 27 shooting tragedy.
Among the measures is grief counseling for students and school staff, and identification of students who have been emotionally put at risk by the dramatic incident as well as support for those students and their families, he added.
In addition, teacher training on suicide prevention by the Suicide Prevention Education Association was held Tuesday in the high school and suicide prevention training for parents will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the Chardon Middle School Large Group Instructional Room, Bergant said.
After the tragic shooting, three students — Daniel Parmertor, 16, Russell King Jr., 17 and Demetrius Hewlin, 16 — died from gunshot wounds while Joy Rickers, 18, Nick Walczak, 17, and Nate Mueller, 17, were wounded.
Walczak remains paralyzed from his chest down.
The accused shooter, T.J. Lane, 18, faces three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault.
Even though the suicide attempts resulted from the high school shooting, “these six students — we believe — may have some issues with depression and other anxieties beforehand,” Bergant said.
The Feb. 27 shooting and three other unrelated shooting deaths that have occurred in Chardon may have caused their emotional problems to “resurface,” he added.
“We are taking a proactive stance, not really a popular stance, but it’s something we must do to protect the lives of our children,” the superintendent said.
As he has previously, Bergant urged people in the community who hear of threats of suicide or violence in the schools to report them to school officials.
Several people and students have come forward with “issues” to school administrators and April Siegel-Green, director for exceptional children, who has been responsible for bringing the suicide prevention and other programs into the school district, he added.
Bergant asked parents to “pay attention and talk to your children (because) if you see things that are not right with them, you need to talk to somebody,” including counselors trained in coping with emotional or mental health problems.
“We’d like to say this is an issue we can forget, however, this is a serious issue, a community issue, and we certainly need your attention and for you to keep an ear to the rail,” Bergant said. “If you hear something funny, see something funny, if your children are acting differently, if their behavior has changed, you need to contact someone at the schools or the local mental health agency.”
Prior to Bergant’s comments, Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services Director Jim Adams spoke to the school board about the importance of a passing a 0.5-mill renewal levy (Issue 29) and an additional 0.25-mill levy (Issue 30) on Nov. 6.
The number of new clients seeking treatment has increased 20 percent per month since the Feb. 27 shooting, which Adams said was a “trigger” event for people with emotional problems.
