Mount Vernon picking up pieces after 2010 suicides

Cars honk, and drivers wave. People stop on the sidewalk to visit. Children play in the park, their excited shrieks filling the air.

It's a summer afternoon in Mount Vernon, comforting in its normalcy.

“I feel like we've gotten a chance to heal,” said Jennifer Pandich, mother of two students in the Mount Vernon school district. “It seemed we were holding our breath by the time the school year ended.”

The loss of three high school students by suicide within seven months of each other shattered this community of 4,000. Parents were worried to let their children out of their sight. Students didn't know what to expect at school. There were questions, fear and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness.

“No one knew what was going on,” said Claire Gruver-Pandich, 15. “No one knew what to do.”

Picking up the pieces

When it comes to suicide, there's no right or wrong way to cope with the loss, no rules guiding families and friends through their grief.

“The effect is like a terrorist attack in that it takes everybody hostage,” said Nick Longworth, director of pastoral care at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. “You focus all of your attention and energy on why. It ties people up emotionally. It ties people up spiritually, psychologically. It's like somebody comes into your world and takes over. You feel helpless, especially after the fact.”

The feeling can go on indefinitely, but Mount Vernon chose another path. Instead of isolation, the community - and the neighboring town of Lisbon - is reaching out.

“There's nothing more heartbreaking than what we've experienced in the community this year,” said Pamela Ewell, superintendent of the Mount Vernon school district. “We've had three families who have lost their children.”

Everyone wants to know why, but it's a question that will remain unanswered.

“There's never an answer when it comes to suicide,” Ewell said.

Coming together

The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Resiliency Project shifts attention away from “Why did this happen?” to “Why are we here? Why do we call this community home?” Designed to promote community engagement and resiliency, the overall goal is to connect, re-engage and build hope within the community.

“I think it's a rare community that can step up and say ‘We're going to make some sense of this and have some good come from it,'” said Mollie Marti, a psychologist who is leading the effort.

Marti describes the resiliency project as a clearinghouse of information, a place where anyone in the community can go to find the resources they need.

“What I'm finding is we have a very people-rich community and a very poor mental health community,” Marti said. “What we need to do is determine what we have in place, then fill the gaps.”

Still in the early stages - the project has had only three meetings - the group has identified the areas in which to focus: leadership; mental health; crisis management and policy; community coordinator; awareness and advocacy; and social marketing.

Free classes for adults promoting resiliency and meditation practices are in progress. as are daily activities for youth. Plans are in the works for family events and peer mentorships. Marti said the group is moving forward cautiously, relying on mental health experts and post-vention resources to guide their progress.

“There are no guarantees, but we can minimize risk,” Longworth said. “If we do nothing, nothing changes.”

Working with area churches, mental health professionals, doctors, city employees, school personnel and parents, the resiliency project is all inclusive, focused on bringing people together - which is why including Lisbon made perfect sense.

“There is such a connection between our two communities,” said Eric Krob, a Lisbon school board member involved in the project. “Even though there is a friendly rivalry, whenever there's a need, all those barriers are stripped down.”

“Our kids are very connected,” said Julie Light, Lisbon's school nurse. “Through classes, through sports, through friendships. We felt Mount Vernon's loss.”

Reaching out

Schools throughout Eastern Iowa reached out to Mount Vernon last year, sending counselors, providing resources and offering assistance. Linn-Mar Superintendent Katie Mulholland shared resources with Ewell. The district lost two middle school students to suicide in February 2003.

“When you are in those situations, you don't necessarily ask for help because you're always thinking of how you can provide help for your staff internally,” Mulholland said. “(Ewell) will always be sensitive, empathetic to anyone in that situation. It never leaves you.”

But that doesn't make what happened a school issue.

“The line is definitely blurred regarding what the school is responsible for,” said Deb Herrmann, a mother of three boys - two who attend Mount Vernon schools - and Mount Vernon school board member.

Herrmann hopes the resiliency project defines the school's role in tragedy. Teachers are trained educators, not counselors. They help their students as much as they can, but she'd like the line defined so they know where their job ends and social services begins.

“Suicide isn't a school issue, it's a societal issue,” Ewell said. “It's something everyone needs to be aware of.”

According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, suicide was the 11th ranking cause of death in the country from 1999-2005, the latest statistics available. In Iowa, suicide was the ninth ranking cause of death during that same time period.

Iowa's 2009 Vital Statistics had suicide as the second leading cause of death among people ages 15 through 24.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded Iowa a grant to implement the Youth Suicide Prevention/Early Intervention Project in 2007. The Iowa Department of Public Health used the money to to provide early identification programs to high school youth. The project also includes a public awareness campaign to promote project participation.

The grant money ran out in May.

“This is not uncommon, unfortunately, when you have a program funded by grants,” said DeAnn Decker, the state's bureau chief of substance abuse.

The department has submitted an application for another round of three-year funding, but won't find out until September if it is approved. The funding cycle begins Oct. 1.

One of the programs supported by the grant was TeenScreen, a program developed by Columbia University to identify students who may be at risk for suicide.

Several Eastern Iowa districts offer TeenScreen, but the grant gave more schools access.

Mount Vernon has used TeenScreen in the past and will again when classes begin next month. The confidential, computerized questionnaire looks for red flags in students' answers, but it doesn't diagnose mental health problems.

More than 90 percent of people who die by suicide suffer depression and other mental disorders, or a substance-abuse disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

A new year

The 2010-11 school year ended a couple of weeks after the last student death.

Some teachers continued classes as usual, others didn't. Final exams were sporadic. Ewell said it wasn't unusual to walk down the hall and see a group of students sitting on the floor, talking with their teacher.

“I was so proud of our staff for making spending time with our youth a priority,” she said.

That will continue to be the focus. All Mount Vernon staff, from board members to bus drivers, will undergo training from the Search Institute next month. The program helps people understand what kids need to succeed and to take action based on that knowledge.

The district is writing a grant to bring the Sources of Strength, a program that connects caring adults with people affected by a trauma, to its high school. Therapy dogs are another possibility.

“It will be different,” Sophomore Sean Herrmann, 14, said. “It won't be normal by any means, but we're going to try and make it as normal as possible.”

Gruver-Pandich, also a sophomore, thinks teachers will be overly observant, watching everyone for signs of something.

Finding balance will be the challenge.

“We worry about that, to be quite honest, because every school year is a fresh start and that's what it should be,” Ewell said. “We will focus on the positive, but also be sensitive because we will have anniversaries this year.”

“I think we're stronger,” Ewell added. “We're stronger as a community, as a staff. Our students are stronger.”

“We're stronger together,” Marti said.