Preventing Teen Suicide With Superior High School’s Hope Squad

The number of people especially youth experiencing mental health struggles is growing. The Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health reported a 41% increase in students considering suicide from their 2024 data. They said one in every four girls say they’ve considered suicide. Superior high schoolers are preventing teen suicide with their Hope Squad.

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The High School’s Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer mental health and suicide prevention group. Leah Gavin and Lila Graves were both anonymously nominated by their peers a few years ago. According to a school survey, they were viewed as students who could be trusted with mental health support for preventing teen suicide.

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“If we see somebody that needs help, we will reach out ourselves and go to them. Because it’s often not handled until the last minute. We want to try and be that change before anything happens,” Graves said. “The most important part is that we’re not counselors or professionals in any way. So we’re not supposed to treat or therapize any of our fellow students. We’re just supposed to connect them to other resources, whether that be in or out of school,” Gavin said.

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A helpful resource the Hope Squad recommends is the Speak Up and Speak Out app. Students can make an anonymous tip if they are concerned one of their students has thoughts of self-harm or maybe even greater problems.

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“When I was in the middle school, I would have loved to see something like this and been able to have that resource. It would be amazing to get into other schools and things. Our dangerous poster shows signs of suicide, and we have them hung up around classrooms, around the entire school. It’s kind of a visual for people to see. If they recognize it, they know that this is a warning sign, and you should reach out for help.”

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Suicide is the second leading cause of death of teens nationwide, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In the past few years, the stigma of talking about mental health has lessened in Superior schools. The Hope Squad was founded in 2019, with the help of Jane Larson, a social worker with the district. She says, before these mental health programs and suicide awareness resources were available, there would be at least one teen suicide annually.

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“Since we implemented some of these changes, the Hope Squad, the Speak Up Speak Out, and Team Mental Health, we have not had a student die by suicide in our school. So that’s the impact of the work that they all do every day.”

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The Superior High School provides a teen mental health first aid class to Sophomores and Juniors. The school district’s mental health first aid action plan also provides how to recognize the signs of someone struggling.

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Originally published at https://www.wdio.com/front-page/top-stories/preventing-teen-suicide-with-superior-high-schools-hope-squad/