PVCC Puma Press: December 2002

The call came to Carol Kendrick, Principal of Desert Shadows Middle School on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 15. One of her eighth grade female students had hung herself from the ceiling fan in her bedroom. The veteran public school principal forced the shock and disbelief to the back of her mind and turned to the prescribed plan of action she now had memorized by heart.

This time she didn’t have to consult her principal’s manual provided by the school system for tragedies such as this. She picked up the phone again and dialed. She wanted her staff to know of the tragedy immediately so they could be prepared for what the morning would bring.

The eighth-grader’s death marks the third suicide at Desert Shadows Middle School in a 12-month period. The first was an eighth grade boy who shot himself one year ago in October and the second was a girl who hung herself in her closet on the evening of Sept. 19. Kendrick’s goal is to prevent this from ever happening again by concentrating her efforts on early detection and prevention of at-risk students.

“Parents have said to me, ‘I didn’t see it,’ and ‘Our kids don’t have issues,” says Kendrick. “It’s a case of the ‘not my kid’ syndrome,” she says, adding that 80 kids a day attempt suicide in Arizona.

“That’s 25,000 suicides per year in this state alone,” Kendrick says, adding that most people aren’t thinking rationally when they attempt suicide.

That such tragedies would happen so close together in this middle-class, Scottsdale neighborhood has shaken the foundation of this community and left students, parents and teachers alike bewildered. Principal Kendrick says students are still reeling from the suicides.

“It’s so unfair because this is such a great school and great community,” she says, adding that students and staff are confused, angry and grief-stricken.

According to Joyce Gatson, counselor at PVCC, suicide knows no social or economic boundaries.

“Arizona has the fifth highest suicide rate in the United States,” says Gatson, who works with Offering Parents and Teens Information on Needless Suicides (O.P.T.I.O.N.S.)

Gatson’s own son committed suicide at age 20. Since then, she has made it her life’s work to understand the enigma of teen depression and suicide. She stays abreast of the social trends and pressures plaguing today’s youth. She has also authored a book on the subject, “Andy, Why Did You Have to Go? A Mother's Reflections on the Life and Suicide of a Son.”

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‘We desensitize our kids to death with video games, movies and violence, until it happens to someone we know and love’
—Wanda Kehl Desert Shadows Middle School counselor
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“Sex, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure and success in school are all great issues for young people,” says Gatson, adding that adolescents need their parents even more than younger children do. Gatson says that just when teens are facing some of the greatest challenges of their young lives, parents often pull away, leaving them to flounder on their own.

According to Gatson, alcohol is involved in 80 percent of all suicides.

“Alcohol reduces the inhibitions of the victims, diminishing their ability to reason and gain a clear perspective on what is so deeply troubling them,” she says.

In the weeks following the Desert Shadows Middle School deaths, psychologists and school counselors offered students follow up crisis counseling sessions in a “care and concern room” to address grief, depression and stress. All students were encouraged to participate.

Counselors and staff instructed students to tell a teacher, parent or trusted adult if they suspect another student of contemplating suicide. After the most recent suicide, the students who knew the victim made a pact with each other and trusted counselors never to take their own lives.

Kendrick maintains that involvement from parents is essential to helping students work through this difficult time. “I believe this is a community issue,” says Kendrick. “Youth leaders in the faith-based community can help students who attend their meetings get through times like this.”

The elementary feeder schools to Desert Shadows have gotten involved by encouraging mental health professionals to hold community meetings in their schools. They are also providing free parenting classes in their districts in order to address the issues of depression and suicide in the wake of the Desert Shadows incidents.

One challenge for Kendrick and the school staff has been how to honor the lives of the students who died, while at the same time not romanticizing suicide.

Wanda Kehl, Desert Shadows Middle School counselor, says the school holds no memorials for students who take their own lives. Kehl and Kendrick feel that a memorial could be seen as glorifying the one who died by his or her own hand, thus encouraging others to take their own lives.

Joyce Gatson says the school should have honored the lives lost with a school-sponsored memorial service.

“It would have allowed the kids to grieve and given them closure,” says Gatson, adding that it would have also given the school an opportunity to stress that suicide is a tragic, untimely loss of human life.

After attending students’ funerals, counseling countless teens over the past several weeks and dealing with her own sense of loss, Kehl contemplates the subject of depression in youth. She stresses that it’s the responsibility of the community to do all it can to prevent suicide, but believes that modern culture does not like to deal with death and dying.

“We don’t want to face the finality of death,” says Kehl, “On the other hand, we desensitize our kids to death with video games, movies and violence, until it happens to someone we know and love.”

Joyce Gatson encourages all parents and anyone interested in preventing suicide to get involved in supporting Desert Shadows.

“Parents should encourage the school in their efforts to establish programs that will prevent suicide in the future,” Gatson says, adding that depression does not always manifest itself as sadness, quietness and tiredness.

“Any change in behavior like sleeplessness, irritability, impulsiveness, aggressiveness or recklessness is potentially a cry for help. Don’t ignore it,” Gatson says.