Montgomery County has seen a sharp spike in deaths due to suicide in the last five years.

In 2011, 46 people in the county took their own lives, according to Montgomery County Forensic Services. By 2014 that number nearly doubled, and in 2015 a total of 134 people took their own lives. As a result, officials from across the county are coming together in an attempt to keep that count from increasing.

“You never used to talk about the ‘s’ word—suicide—with a very young child, but there have been some really young children who have ideations, but also a plan in place,” said Denise Cipolla, Conroe ISD coordinator of guidance and counseling. “Too often parents provide them with information about family situations that they’re not old enough and mature enough to handle.”

In Montgomery County and nationwide, economic and financial strife are leading more adults to take his or her life, Cipolla said.

“When our adults lose their job in a layoff situation, that’s often their total identity,” Cipolla said. “They just don’t know what to do without that job.”

Conroe ISD response

Anna Houk, a 2016 graduate of The Woodlands High School, attempted suicide during her junior year after moving to the area from Virginia. Stress and pressure surrounding schoolwork played a major role in what pushed her  over the limit, she said.

“With moving, the social aspects of that are pretty hard,” Houk said. “Moving any time is really difficult, but especially junior year. Adding the social aspects to that made it more difficult.”

Since Houk’s attempt last December, she has gotten the help she needs and started school at Texas A&M University this fall. However, others are not so lucky.

“We had a hard year districtwide,” Cipolla said. “Every one of our [high] schools lost a child to suicide.”

Suicides in the past year in CISD include Cassidy Hess, a College Park student, and Richard Jorgensen, softball coach at TWHS. College Park swim coach David James’ 13-year-old-son Peyton also killed himself in 2014 while staying with his mother in Austin.

“In Conroe ISD, we are working on building resiliency within our students from elementary,” Cipolla said. “[We] then continue to foster those coping skills and strengths each year so that by the time [students] are independent, they have those resources to learn from failure, not just to give up.”

While many factors, from bullying to mental illness can contribute to one contemplating suicide, Houk said she personally felt like the expectation to perform well academically became too stressful when she moved to Texas—a state that highly values the top 10 percent rule.

“Whether you’re dealing with mental illness or not, that’s a lot of pressure to put on 15-, 16- and 17-year olds,” Houk said. “To me, what was hard is if I don’t get a good grade on this test, I won’t get a good grade in this class, so I won’t have a good GPA, so I won’t get into a good college. I think it’s really easy for kids to spiral with that anxiety.”

Houk said students at her high school in Virginia were still very competitive, but rank did not necessarily determine which colleges students could or could not attend.

“I feel like especially at a school like The Woodlands [High School]—and at all the Conroe [ISD] schools—it’s already supercompetitive,” Houk said. “We already know that the kids there are working really hard, so I think adding that pressure of the rank—I don’t see any benefit to it.”

Cipolla said social media can also play a large role in suicidal thoughts.

“We try to warn about those dangers of social media, and it certainly is addressed by the administrators and the counselors and the teachers,” she said. “Stuff doesn’t go away when it’s said on social media. We try to teach the kids the lasting effect of any little comment that they make and to be kind and thoughtful about what they’re saying about others.”

Cipolla said students can talk to a counselor anytime they need to work through an issue. CISD employs 127 counselors, including a crisis intervention specialist, to serve 58,239 students.

“We take this topic very seriously,” CISD Superintendent Don Stockton said. “Awareness has been greatly raised in the last few months. We have a new crisis counselor this year, and we’re going to add another crisis counselor mid-year.”

Counseling help

When a student turns to a counselor in CISD, it becomes the counselor’s job to help the student get the help they need, whether that is referring the student to a therapist outside of school or determining an appropriate hospital in which the student may need to stay, Cipolla said.

“We train counselors yearly,” Cipolla said. “They go back and train the faculty yearly on suicide ideation, outcry, warning signs and resources. We have a protocol in Conroe ISD that all of our administrators, counselors and teachers follow. It’s not [the teacher’s] job to investigate; it’s their job to refer to the counselor who then has that support network, resources and contacts.”

To maintain these contacts and resources, Cipolla meets with local entities like Montgomery County Youth Services on a monthly basis.

CEO John Bracken said MCYS offers counseling for local youths and their parents. It also provides references should clients need to be institutionalized.

MCYS sees an average of 1,500 youths and their families each year. A common issue is the pressure to excel at everything in order to get into a good college, Bracken said.

“Even if they really want to care for me, counselors don’t have the time,” Houk said. “I think having a trained professional who has a background in dealing with mental health is really important.”

Because Houk felt like counselors at school might not have time for her, social and academic anxiety began to pile up.

“I don’t think that we tell students enough that grades are not the most important thing,” she said. “Grades don’t tell you how great of a person you are, how kind you are or all these things that are important in life.”

Although depression and anxiety may be something Houk deals with for the rest of her life, she said it was her faith in God that pulled her through.

“One of the things my youth pastor said to me was, ‘God has a time for you. You’ll go when his time comes but until that comes, he still has a plan for you,’” Houk said. “That was a really important thing for me to know.”

Houk said it is important to have someone to talk to when depression sets in. If someone knows a friend or peer is struggling, it is OK to tell someone who can help.

“There are so many people that care,” Houk said. “Even seeing when people died [last] school year, people who didn’t even know them were still affected. People who you don’t even know care about you so much. Even if it seems like you are alone, you’re definitely not.”

As the community begins to come together, the goal is to make suicide a word that is no longer taboo so those who are struggling feel like they can open up without feeling vulnerable.

“It takes everybody,” Cipolla said. “We need to unite in order to change.”

Mental health services in Montgomery County:

Family and Youth Institute 25511 Budde Road, Spring 281-719-5539 www.familyandyouthinstitute.com

Interfaith Community Clinic 101 Pine Manor Drive, Oak Ridge North 281-364-7889 www.interfaithcommunityclinic.org

Lone Star Family Health Center 440 Rayford Road, Ste. 150, Spring 832-246-8700 www.lonestarfamily.org

Montgomery County Youth Services 105 W Lewis St., Conroe 936-756-8682 www.youthmc.org

New Dimensions Day Treatment Centers 111 Vision Park Blvd., Shenandoah 800-685-9796 www.nddtreatment.com

Tri-County Services 1020 Riverwood Court, Conroe 936-521-6300 24-hour crisis line: 1-800-659-6994 www.tricountyservices.org