Parents and school administrators in the Eugene R-5 school district have pledged to work together to improve the mental health of their students.
Those comments came after community-wide calls for change.
A petition was started three weeks ago on change.org for a meeting with the Cole R-5 school board. The petition appeared after a second district student died of suicide within a year's time. The petition garnered 1,100 signatures.
At a meeting of the Eugene School Board on Wednesday night, Andy and Jennifer Wilbers asked what she and other parents can do to help the children.
"We want to improve not just the Eugene community, but also other nearby communities, like Brazito where we live," Jennifer said. "Suicide is a community problem, not just a school issue. It was not one thing, one day that led to these tragic events. It needs to be a community solution because not one person alone can fix it."
The Eugene area is not alone; according to new CDC data, suicide is the third leading cause of death for middle and high school students.
Since a student died of suicide in May, Superintendent Charley Burch said the school has been hosting training and speakers frequently dealing with the subjects of mental health, bullying and suicide prevention.
Burch said he has heard people say the school has not done enough to address those issues. He said it's difficult for everyone involved, but the district has been trying to provide resources.
"Because of what happened last May, we have put a pretty extensive effort into making sure we're putting a lot of effort into addressing mental health issues," Burch said.
Those efforts include professional development for teachers and staff, speakers for students and a seminar for parents on mental health, bullying and suicide prevention.
Jennifer Wilbers said the school in a small community plays a big role, just like churches do.
"That's why we wanted to come to you (the school board) to keep this conversation going," Wilbers said. "After these events, Andy and I have identified things we want to change about how we parent our children."
Burch said the district planned to continue their efforts and also put greater emphasis on encouraging good communication from students and parents about issues that may be going on.
"As an administrative staff, we can't address something if we don't know anything about it," he said.
He said it's also important to direct parents to resources "so they can talk with their kids and have some of these difficult conversations that maybe ... don't happen."
Burch said the school had a guest speaker come to talk with parents, staff and students in November about recognizing signs and helping students who are struggling.
"We advertised it pretty hard, and ... as far as attendance, it wasn't real strong, so that was a little bit disappointing from our end. And since then, we've had people bring up, 'Well, that's something we need to do.' Well, we did do that."
Burch hopes some good can come out of these tragedies and people can be better focused on the issues of mental health, bullying and teen suicide. He encouraged parents to monitor their children's use of social media, which can be a source of many issues.
Wilbers told the board she has been hearing a lot of positive feedback about what the schools have tried to do in the wake of these tragedies.
Other parents at Wednesday's meeting hoped the more things as a community that can be implemented to create a support system, outside and inside the schools, would benefit every child in the Eugene area.
"I have a whole list of ideas that I keep adding to that people mention to me and there's a lot of things to do we need to do as parents -- one of which is talk positively about the school," Wilbers said.
Burch also encouraged parents and students to look at the Courage2Report app, available from the Missouri Highway Patrol. It's a confidential way to alert schools and law enforcement when there could be a issues regarding bullying or cyberbulling online.
"Although we're more fortunate than other places, we're still dealing with the affects of COVID and how that destroyed the school function and how things work," Burch said. "I think that is a big factor for what we're having to deal with now.
"Many of those kids lost out on the adolescent things they would normally experience," he added. "They missed opportunities where teachers can teach them to cope with the type of problems and issues they face at this age."
Board members also expressed support for what the Wilbers and other parents said, encouraging them to talk with them and when they come together as a group with ideas or concerns they should come back and make a presentation. There was talk that a community meeting could be held at the school for all those interested to talk more on these matters.
"Everybody is accountable and everybody has to take an opportunity to see what can we do better," Burch said. "Our staff has felt beat up because of what has been said on social media blaming the schools for not doing more to prevent these tragedies."
"I'm not blaming anybody and we all got a lot of work to do," Andy Wilbers told Burch. "Don't think we're throwing stones at you because we know the school can't fix everything. The school's a great resource."
News Tribune reporter Anna Campbell contributed to this story.