Pueblo middle school learns the importance of asking for help with suicide prevention program

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Wednesday at Pueblo Academy of Arts (PAA), formally Pitts Middle School, a Colorado couple whose son died by suicide spoke to students about the importance of asking for help, and recognizing warning signs in others.

Eighth-graders at the school attended a presentation from the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program, based in Westminster, Colorado.

The program -- which seeks to reduce the number of suicides and attempted suicides -- was formed in 1994 by the parents of Mike Emme, 17, after he died by suicide.

Yellow was Mike's favorite color.

Mike's parents said that he was so emotionally overwhelmed at the time, he didn't know where or whom to ask for help.

"He was acting a little bit different than normal, which is a warning sign," explained Mike's father, Dale Emme. "He was always happy and cheerful in helping other people. So, many of these warning signs are not always there. But if you see any of the warning signs, the big thing that's important is to open communication with somebody."

Dale and his wife, Dar, said that the situation is common among teens who are considering suicide, and one of their goals is to make seeking help easier by emphasizing education, training, and working with local and national resources to create and maintain suicide prevention programs.

Eighth-grader Alex Vaughn is the last person you'd expect to have considered suicide. But, despite her young age, she told KRDO she's struggled with mental health.

"I was getting bullied, back in 6th grade as well as 7th grade," she recalled. "Bullying has been a big factor in my life -- and everybody goes through it. I got past it by telling my mom, because she had always talked with me about it. I'm glad they did the presentation today."

Kelsey Filangi, a counselor at the school, said that the staff hears about a student considering or threatening suicide "maybe a couple of times every few weeks." While some students might not mean it when they discuss dying by suicide, the school takes all of these discussions very seriously.

"We're starting to hear about more suicides happening among kids in this younger age group, across the country. With things like social media, it's getting OK for them to joke about it. But we still have to take every case very seriously and conduct assessments. In many cases, kids end up saying that they didn't want to take their own lives but they need to find better ways to express whatever they're feeling," said Filangi.

Pueblo School District 60 said that its high schools received similar presentations from the Emmes last year, and its other middle schools will experience them this year.

"We like to think that we're saving lives," Dale Emme said. "We hope we are. What happened to Mike, could have destroyed us. But even a day after we found him, we used it as a call to action."

For more information, visit https://yellowribbon.org/.