KUSA- The issue of teen suicides in Colorado is serious enough that Gov. John Hickenlooper brought it up in his State of the State speech last week.
One family knows the painful reality of losing a child to suicide and they are now hoping to lend their voices in a new way to schools.
One year ago, Ashley Dunn seemed like a happy 13-year-old: involved in theater and basketball, with a circle of friends at Prairie Middle School in Aurora. Then, it all came to a shocking end.
"Devastating. I can't think of a better word, but it doesn't seem enough," said Carrie Laraia, Ashley's stepmother. "She was just a really good kid."
Laraia said the family reeled from the middle school student's suicide. What hurt most, they said, is that some of her friend's knew something was wrong beforehand, but did not speak up.
"That was really hard—to know that people knew that she wasn't okay, that she was struggling," she said.
It's a collective silence Ashley's family is hoping to break, through a nonprofit called Ashley's Voice. The idea is to get students to speak up, by writing up.
"They're called concern cards and basically, they get into the hands of every student in a school," Laraia said.
The students could then drop off the cards anonymously to school counselors. Ashley's Voice is looking to start the program during the coming school year where she went to school.
"We'd really like to have an impact in honor of Ashley and her memory," Laraia said.
Colorado has one of the highest teen suicide rates in the country. In his State of the State address last week, Hickenlooper said the new statewide mental health crisis system will help, but more could be done.
"We need to give schools the resources to identify and support kids at risk for serious mental health issues," Hickenlooper said, "before they lead to suicide or violence."
And before they lead to one more Ashley.
"As many people as we can get talking about this, the better," Laraia said.
For more information on Ashley's Voice, go to www.booster.com/ashleysvoicedunn
For additional resources on suicide prevention, click on www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
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