Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Administrators meet with various community partners in hopes of engaging students in positive activities in wake of latest teen suicide

In the wake of a student suicide during Thanksgiving, the third in the past six months while school was out of session, the Newberg School District quickly made it a priority to better support students during the upcoming winter break.

In addition to recognizing that teen suicide is a community issue and therefore requires a solution that involves a more collective effort moving forward, district officials know they need help from others in order to prevent students from becoming isolated when classes let out on Friday afternoon.

Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza invited a variety of organizations and community leaders to a meeting Dec. 8 in hopes of coordinating efforts to provide basic services, engage students in positive activities and keep them connected to each other and adults over the next two weeks.

"In this situation if we can make whatever activities are available to kids, it comes down to if we see them engage somewhere in the community in a positive way, wherever that is, then they're safe," LeBlanc-Esparza said.

Representatives from the Chehalem Park and Recreation District, the city of Newberg, Providence Newberg Medical Center and two local churches joined LeBlanc-Esparza, assistant superintendent Dave Parker and communications coordinator Claudia Stewart at the district office, but with the inclement weather, many who were invited or have agreed to participate in the discussion and planning were unable to attend.

There was a consensus that getting students to connect in positive ways with adults and each other is the key to combating the problem moving forward.

"This is telling the story and the story is connection," Parker said. "We need to connect people. Yes, they won't seek out these things, but the more that we can tell that story for our kids, we want you to connect and we're putting things together to find a way, that's the piece that will sink into the cracks."

The district is compiling a list of resources and drafting a calendar of existing activities in the community over the break to distribute to students and families, in a variety of ways, this week. Much of the meeting was spent identifying gaps in the school schedule and brainstorming ways in which the stakeholders could work together to add new options and coordinate to remove the obstacles that might prevent students from accessing them.

Among those barriers were cost and transportation, with Parker pledging to look into the possibility of working with the Yamhill County Transit Area to allow students in need to ride the bus locally for free over break.

CPRD aquatics coordinator Tara Franks said the aquatics center offers scholarships to youth who may not be able to afford regular fees, but that the process requires connecting with a school counselor or parent, which will be more difficult over Christmas break. With the help of school administrators, Franks distributed more than 500 free pool passes to students in order to circumvent that process over break.

Pastors David Case of Newberg Christian Church and Aaron Rauch of Family Life Church participated in the meeting and were very much on the same page as the district officials. Newberg Christian Church, which already runs the "MyZone" after-school program for middle school students, has added some activities over the break and has a series of "Living in Community" seminars planned for the coming months, beginning with a suicide awareness session Jan. 29 that will be led by George Fox University assistant professor Michelle Shelton.

The group also tried to identify potential stakeholders who may not have been brought on board yet, with LeBlanc-Esparza declaring that any working group or task force moving forward must be inclusive.

"I don't want this to be exclusive," LeBlanc-Esparza said. "I want this to include anyone who wants to help out."

That will certainly include students and principal Kyle Laier said the district's Dec. 7 workshop on supporting teens who are grieving was a success, but identified establishing a consistent way in which the school responds to the death of a student is needed and that students will play a huge role in its development.

"We respond to the crisis, but we don't have a way for students to engage that we go into each time we lose a peer and I want to work with our students to develop that," Laier said. "How do we respond when someone is in a car accident, takes their own life or whatever it is? How do we allow our students to grieve and remember and do all of those things within our school community in a common way so that it's consistent for every kid no matter who they are?"

In the meantime, the district plans to publish its calendar and catalog of resources online at www.newberg.k12.or.us and also make copies available through community partners like CPRD, PNMC and local churches. The district has also compiled a list various resources – including meals, hotline, and a suicide awareness and prevention page – which can be accessed by clicking "Community Resources" under the "Parents/Students" header on the main page of its website. For a schedule of activities at the pool over break, visit www.cprdnewberg.org.