A Hopeful Community

My entire life, I have been blessed to live in Texas.  I attended great schools, and our children have had the privilege to do so as well.  The wealth of opportunity for students in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD overwhelms me.  As I write this, we are organizing my son's classes for his sophomore year.  He has the chance to take many courses designed to help him decide what college major to study down the road!  Our school district excels in preparing students academically for a very successful future.

Yet, beneath the service of this great community with great schools, parents and kids exists a crisis we must address.  Suicide rates in Tarrant county have increased dramatically over the past several years.  Since 2012, the suicide rate in this area of North Texas has risen 66% higher than the national average.  What is wrong, and what can we do about it?

We don't have all the answers, but I am thankful to be an integral part of a school district that believes in taking immediate action.  I am thankful to observe a community that is poised and ready to begin talking more about mental health.  On January 28th, I attended a meeting regarding my son's nomination to serve on the Colleyville Heritage High School Hope Squad for the 2019 Spring semester.  The Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer support program focusing on suicide prevention.  The program, originating in Utah, will train and equip students with the skills/tools to help them be a support to their friends, seek the help of a trusted adult and help build a positive culture at their school.  In an age of society when the world promotes self-sufficiency and suffering in solitude, this program recognizes parents, students and teachers need to come together.  We need to provide one another with hope.

As one of the six school districts in our area to launch this program, I am excited to begin.  I sincerely believe GCISD is in a unique position to build a greater awareness of mental health issues.  I pray, in a collaborative community effort between students, teachers and parents, we can have healthy discussions about anxiety and depression.  In the months ahead, I pray our students find tremendous comfort in knowing there's a "squad" who wants to hear how others are feeling.  There's a "squad" who wants to offer emotional support.  There's a "squad" who can connect the hurting to healing resources.  There's a "squad" who can offer hope.  Praise God for this beautiful reality!

If you would like more information about the Hope Squad program, please visit https://youtu.be/kIkEXI-Tt3c.