The Hope team encourages students to seek help, serve as a resource

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Talking about suicide, especially when it comes to our children, is not easy. This is a big reason why the word alone carries so much stigma.

But we are faced with the problem of our young population, which does not disappear anywhere. Children, young and in their teens, often deal with depression and other emotions that are difficult to deal with and can sometimes cause suicidal thoughts.

Tom and Ellen Harris represent one of those “worst days”.

Their daughter Jordan suddenly and unexpectedly committed suicide in 2012.

Ellen shared, “It took me a long time before I could talk to people properly after her death.”

Harris said Jordan touched many lives growing up in the North Richland Hills, she was incredibly close to her family and dedicated to working for nonprofits. I asked Father Jordan Tom to describe his daughter.

“She was a gifted young lady, an A student in her class,” he said. “Scholar at the University of Michigan. Beautiful, athletic, but the most important thing about Jordan is that she has a huge heart. I always wanted to help other people.”

For the Harrises, March 2012 was frozen in time. They later found out that Jordan was silently suffering from severe depression.

It was hard to imagine that this beautiful and talented daughter they raised, who cared more about helping others, couldn’t do the same for herself.

At 22, Jordan Harris committed suicide.

Through the veil of their grief, Tom and Ellen saw a sobering reality.

Ellen recalls, “Once we started sharing our stories with people and getting their stories in return, we realized what a huge problem suicide is, and how many people have been personally affected by it, thought about it themselves.”

The students and staff at Brewer High School in White Settlement tell us about these fearful thoughts, including the children here. In 2016, four years after Jordan’s death, the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation selected White Settlement as the first county in Texas to host a Hope Squad.

A new program that then-student Ray Mayo wanted to be a part of.

“They taught us a lot, how to address a person, how to ask questions, how to ask questions. Because this is a difficult question. And how to convince them to seek help and then refer them to an adult.”

The Hope Team is a volunteer team of students and educators trained to recognize the warning signs of suicide and actively help those who may be struggling.

Mayo and others say this happens more often in schools than you might think.

In fact, he had a meeting just a few days before this interview.

“They just came up to me, hugged me and said “help”. could come up to me and talk.”

Members of the Hope Squad, such as Mayo, are chosen annually by their fellow students as people they can trust. Mayo joined us as a sixth grader in 2016 when a sixth grader committed suicide.

A moment that brings Mayo to tears as he recalls… “When you go to school with someone, even if you don’t really know them, you come back and look at the yearbook and you’re like, ‘Oh, I I remember this guy, he was funny.” Or I remember seeing him in the corridors. When you lose someone so close to your age, it can hurt you a lot, because even if you don’t know them personally, other people around you do. one of the main reasons why I think it makes me emotional. That’s because there are thousands of kids at this school, but you don’t need to know them all to connect with them.”

Beth Sweeney is a consultant at Brewer and also oversees the Squad of Hope program. She said it could apply to anyone.

“Suicide really has no face. To be honest, as a consultant, I see every demographic. I really see.”

Sweeney ran the program at Brewer from day one and said she couldn’t imagine navigation without her.

“They are the eyes and ears of our campus. And although I am a counselor and always near the open door, there are 500 children in my alphabet, and therefore I will not be able to see all 500 of them. my children every day.

One of the kids helping to watch for signs of distress is sophomore Alyssa Gavrel, herself a veteran of the Hope Squad. She shared what the members learn to follow.

“We learn what people can do or say when they start thinking about it. You can kind of say, let’s say you know someone pretty well and they get quiet or stop talking to you. Either they say, “I wish I wasn’t here anymore,” or “no one cares if I leave,” or they start acting completely different… that’s when you sort of step in and ask questions.”

Alyssa said she became a member of the Hope Squad at the urging of her father Beau, who teaches graphic design at Brewer. He’s also in the Hope Squad. Suicide touched their own family.

Bo said that being on the program put his heart at ease after their loss and hopes he can make a difference.

“I learned a lot from it, now I can ask more questions earlier, pick up character traits, mannerisms, body language.”

Be there for others. Listening without judgment. Keeping hope before it’s too late.

That’s all Tom and Ellen Harris hope for now, despite the monstrous price they paid. Emotions that Tom admits he struggles with.

“There are times when I feel pretty good and very proud of what we have been able to do to help others, and there are days when I wish I had never heard the term Hope Squad.

There are currently about 80 Hope Squads operating in 19 school districts in North Texas.

The Harris family looks forward to continuing to expand the program statewide and nationally.

They can be found at jordanharrisfoundation.org.

If you or someone you know ever needs to talk to someone, you can call the 988 Suicide Helpline 24/7.