Photo Caption: (Left) Student Wellness Coordinator Tanisha Griffin gives students resources for suicide and self-harm prevention. (Center) Students leave post-it notes with something they need to hear or something they wish they could say. (Right) Anonymous note left by a West Brook student. Photos: Maximus Guillen and Alivia Carey
October 23, 2023
By Maximus Guillen and Alivia Carey
Staff Writers
Suicide prevention week is a crucial time for West Brook High School’s student of concern team to reach out to students with mental health resources.
Student Wellness Coordinator Tanisha Griffin talked about the problem of students not reaching out for help when they are in a mental health crisis.
During suicide prevention week, Sept. 5-11, Griffin and CIS coordinator Hannah Clark hosted a suicide awareness booth in the cafeteria during all three lunch periods, offering students snacks and candy and asked them to write something they need to hear or something they wish someone would say on a post-it note and sticking it up on a display.
“My hope is to make a huge impact on the student body about suicide awareness month,” she said. “A lot of teens suffer in silence. They either do not seek help or do not even know where to seek help.”
Griffin said that she and journalism teacher Eleanor Skelton worked together to bring To Write Love On Her Arms’ high school program Between the Bells to West Brook last school year. TWLOHA is a nonprofit organization based in Florida that focuses on suicide and self-harm prevention and providing mental health resources.
“[It] is a campaign that's nationwide to reach teenagers to talk about how their emotions, feelings, where to seek help, so they don't have to suffer in silence,” Griffin said.
Suicide prevention month may be in September, but Griffin said this is every month for her.
“That's something I talk about all school year,” she said. “Once [students] talk to me, they realize there's help on campus, there's campus support, there's resources outside of school, and then they tell a friend and their friend tells another friend.
“This is something that is year long. Even though we’re putting an emphasis on it this month with a lunch and learn because of suicide awareness month, doesn’t mean it’s not something I don’t deal with daily.”
Griffin said everyone has mental health or mental wellness as she likes to call it, with highs and lows.
“But the thing is, how long you stay down and how long it takes you to get up,” she said. “People think that’s one and the same, but it's not. You may have someone who goes through seasonal depression, you may have someone who has lost a family member, or it could be that maybe they had a breakup that they don't know how to handle and they weren't prepared for, so their mental health—their mental wellness—was impacted."
Beaumont ISD has worked to find programs that offer affordable therapy to students whose parents may not have insurance for mental healthcare, Griffin said. Students can have a virtual visit with a mental health professional who may refer them to a local office like Spindletop or Legacy.
Students visited the Between the Bells booth during each lunch period throughout the week.
“I feel like there’s still teens that commit suicide,” junior Zechariah Davis said. “I feel like most of them are queer, and I feel like that’s an important thing because that needs to be recognized how bullying should not be allowed in schools. People respect people.”
Sophomore Christiana LeFleur said that talking about your emotions is important.
“You gather kids together, like get them in a circle, and make them tell their feelings in that moment or how they are feeling,” she said. “I feel like they should be able to talk about their situation and be open more to tell people they can trust, because a lot of people that are suicidal, they can’t trust people.”
Assistant Principal Jeremi Bowman is on the behavior intervention team, and part of his job is helping students deal with mental health issues.
“Mental health is very important, because it’s the foundation for how people’s day goes,” he said. “If you’re not feeling well, you’re not going to perform well.”
Bowman said that he hopes students and staff keep the importance of mental health in mind all year long, but he is glad that people are becoming more aware of what to look for.
“It’s not enough,” he said. “The simple fact is that suicide prevention week is great, but it needs to happen all year.”
