Responding To Tragedy

RESPONDING TO TRAGEDY

For 32 years as a school counselor, I have had the privilege of witnessing the remarkable resilience of young people — watching them grow, discover their strengths, and flourish even in the harshest seasons of life. Those early years were filled with hope, purpose, and the belief that with the right support, students could overcome anything.

Then, ten years into my career, things changed. I experienced the unthinkable: losing not one, but several students to suicide in a short period of time. The heartbreak was profound. Personally, I was overwhelmed with grief and guilt, searching for answers to the impossible question of “why.” Professionally, I found myself asking an even more urgent question: What can I do to help prevent more deaths by suicide?

That question became a turning point.  It brought a small group of passionate individuals together, including myself and Sandy Kovar, the mother of one of my students who died by suicide. From the shared passion of wanting to help others, TEARS was born.

From the beginning, our mission was clear: to teach people how to identify risk factors, recognize warning signs, and connect those in need to help. We shared this message with anyone who would listen — throughout our community, our region, and beyond. And we know this work has saved lives.

Over time, we learned something essential. While recognizing risk factors, warning signs and connecting people to help is critical, sometimes a person is already deep in crisis before anyone recognizes they’re struggling. 

Our TEARS mission continued to grow, taking on a more upstream focus—building resilience by helping people discover hope and identify inner strength. While our original vision remains at the heart of what we do, we have expanded our mission. 

Today, TEARS is dedicated not only to crisis recognition and response, but also to empower all people to create hope and build strength.  It is when people learn to cultivate hope and build strength within themselves, they become more resilient and they are better equipped to face adversity. 

It is through this combined approach — prevention and proactive resilience-building — that we move closer to our vision: A WORLD WHERE SUICIDE NO LONGER EXISTS.