Opinion: Suicide prevention requires more than just ‘This can’t happen again’

In response to the most recent youth suicide tragedy, I understand the school district has had a limited response in order to respect the privacy and wishes of the family. But I believe it is important that Palo Alto shifts its approach to suicide prevention by centering the experiences and perspectives of young people. Instead of sidelining youth from important conversations, we should actively involve them in decision-making and creating spaces where they feel heard, valued and supported. This invitation and collaboration to provide for their needs may be the intervention and prevention our community needs most. I can personally say this type of approach would have helped me and my peers growing up in Palo Alto as adolescents.

I graduated with the class of 2015 at Gunn High School and was quoted in a VICE article that reported on the 2014-2015 suicide cluster in our school district. The Sept. 9, 2015, VICE article mentioned my experience of bringing several of my friends who were suicidal or self-harming to the high school’s Adolescent Counseling Services, but it “actually made their situations worse because the school [would] contact [the families of those students], who then reacted poorly upon learning of [their children’s] conditions. And the school never followed up with them later.” 

What the VICE article does not tell you is what exactly the response of my friends’ parents was. I can tell you today, their response was along the lines of “this can’t happen again,” and that was simply the end of the discussion — if that was even a discussion to begin with. From my perspective as a student at the time, both parents and the school were not able to build trust or space for youth to feel supported and heard. Ten years later, the Palo Alto community finds itself having a similar response to our current youth. The Palo Alto Online updated an article on Jan. 24, 2023, regarding high school youth who are voicing for more transparency and supportive space to process. The youths’ request in the article is wise and justified; the demand for transparency is a plea for acknowledgment and recognition of their struggles.

I want our community response to be more than just “this can’t happen again.” A local executive director of a community mental health nonprofit recently gave me important insight on how we as a community can view the current mental health crisis. Of course, we as a community should invest in comprehensive mental health services and resources, but they explained to me that we will fail as a system if we think the solution to this problem is simply to hire and train more therapists. Their solution and goal to improve community mental health? Building everyone’s capacity to care for one another’s well-being, including individuals, caregivers, schools, community organizations and systems.

Developing our community capacity requires evaluating how effective our previous suicide prevention plans have been. Additionally, we need to reexamine our system’s structure for educating and equipping parents and school faculty to navigate these topics with our youth. Engaging in conversations with young people can facilitate better assessment, and collaboratively, we can mobilize resources to have a more significant impact for them and their families. Fostering care and capacity can empower our youth to heal, grow and continue to affect positive change while addressing complex mental health issues. Merely stating, “this can’t happen again,” perpetuates stigma and silence for all parties involved.

Together, I hope we can make Palo Alto a safer, healthier and more compassionate place for all its residents. However, it begins with prioritizing the voices of our youth in our efforts to prevent youth suicide. This requires adults and the broader community to empower and support them effectively.

Jessica Lwi is a community member and UC Berkeley Master’s in Social Work student. She can be reached at jessielwi@berkeley.edu. 

Editor’s note:

Help is available
Any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal can call 988, the mental health crisis hotline, to speak with a crisis counselor. In Santa Clara County, interpretation is available in 200 languages. Spanish speakers can also call 888-628-9454.
People can reach trained counselors at Crisis Text Line by texting RENEW to 741741.