In a survey of high school students, the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center found that almost 1 in 5 teens had thought about suicide, about 1 in 6 teens had made plans for suicide, and more than 1 in 12 teens had attempted suicide in the last year. As many as 8 out of 10 teens who commit suicide try to ask for help in some way before committing suicide, such as by seeing a doctor shortly before the suicide attempt.
Suicide is not something that should be ignored. Warning signs for someone who may be considering suicide can be found HERE
BFTE is helping to raise awareness for Zachs Friends. BFTE has created two colors (Erase the Stigma & Zach's Friends) to support Zachs Friends spread the word against suicide.
A letter from Zachs mother:
On April 8th, 2011 our lives were forever changed when we lost our beloved son, Zachary.
Zachary was a funny, energetic, loving son...who also battled depression.
On April 8th Zachary ended his life.
While no one likes to talk about suicide, it's time we start talking and raising awareness. By educating ourselves and others we can start to recognize the warning signs and what we can do to help someone in need.
According to the CDC a life is lost to suicide every 15 minutes, that's approximately 95 lives EACH DAY! That statistic is astounding and is reason enough to start talking. We need to equip ourselves and our children with the right resources to help others.
Like most families walking the same path we are, we had no clue our son was going to end his life that day, however, we refuse to stay silent. We want to do everything we can to raise awareness.
In our efforts to raise awareness we had Friend of Zach bracelets created to help raise awareness about suicide prevention.
While we are not professionals, we hope that our story and our ambition to help others will be contagious and that people will wear their bracelets not only as a reminder of a wonderful young man who's life was cut too short, but a reminder that we can make a difference.
We can make a difference!
A common misconception is that "If I talk about suicide to my kids then I'll give them the idea to do it." That is simply not true. Suicide is portrayed in movies, on TV, and in the news...it's better for you to educate them rather than their friends or television.
We MUST talk to our kids about this...if for no other reason, so they know what to do if a situation arises with one of their friends.
In the weeks since our son passed we have handed out (at no charge to students, parents and communities) over 1,000 bracelets with daily requests for more.
Your help is sincerely appreciated!
Melissa Jones (Zach's Mom)
