In The News: Newberg schools react to latest student suicide

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic reporter

District officials have called a meeting with community partners in hopes of keeping students connected during the upcoming break

After three students took their lives in the past six months, including one over the Thanksgiving break, the Newberg School District is reaching out to partners and stakeholders in the community for help in providing more support to students in the short term and in beginning to plan how to better address the situation moving forward.

Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza reached out via email to members of the faith community, local and county government, George Fox University, Providence Newberg Medical Center, Youth Outreach and others Nov. 29 and will host a meeting Thursday morning at the district office.

"It really is something that we've got to look at from a community health-support structure," LeBlanc-Esparza told the school board at the Nov. 29 meeting. "So looking at long term what are the things that we need to do and bringing all those people together to have conversations around what do we need to do within our community to support kids differently, who needs us to do that …"

The district has been scrambling to provide support to students and staff who are mourning the Nov. 25 death of NHS and Catalyst student Daniel Textor.

"Catalyst and NHS lost a valued member of our community over the holiday break," NHS principal Kyle Laier said. "We know many students are grieving the loss of their friend who took his own life."

Catalyst principal Bill Rogers encouraged students to attend school immediately after break so that they could connect with others. The school provided a safe room Nov. 28-29, where students could meet with trained staff from the district or just escape to if they felt overwhelmed and not be marked absent.

"The challenge has been how can we help and model for our students how you cope with this and just help them get through it," Rogers said.

LeBlanc-Esparza praised the staff at NHS and the alternative high school program for responding quickly, but wasted little time herself in reaching out to the community.

A big reason for the quick timing comes because all three students died while school was on break and the district is set to begin its winter break after classes let out Dec. 16, so she is feeling a sense of urgency in dealing with the matter.

"So we're looking at getting people together and having conversations around what can we do to provide support structures over this holiday that will hopefully give kids connections," said at the board meeting. "I'm not saying that's the magic answer to all of this, but I am saying that's a piece where we see when kids are not connected to us that brings a greater level of struggle."

The district will also hold an evening workshop on supporting teens who are experiencing grief, depression or thoughts of suicide from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the NHS west commons.