This is the third in a series that uncovers the stories of underserved groups and their struggles with suicide.

Suicide is a major contributor to premature death in the United States, especially for young people who are committing suicide at an unforgiving clip.

According to a 2022 report from the National Vital Statistics System, males ages 15 to 24 experienced the largest percent increase in suicide among men from 2020 to 2021 (8%). For females ages 10 to 14, suicide jumped 15% in the same period, revealing the largest increase of any age group.

While no one can say with certainty why suicide is a leading cause of death for youth, local counselors cite a few interrelated factors that may be contributing to it, including drug abuse and excessive social media usage.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s District 7 Captain Larry Kratzer says only one youth suicide in Fountain Hills comes to mind in the last four years, however, within that time he has experienced a few calls regarding teens or youth threatening or attempting suicide.

“That’s not to say it’s not a problem and a topic that needs attention,” Kratzer said.

Angela Buczek is a counselor for the Fountain Hills Middle School (FHMS). Her 13-year career in crisis, emergency and substance abuse counseling led her to FHUSD in 2020, where she works with students in fourth through eighth grade.

“I’ve worked in ERs and lockdown patient units, all that stuff, but I will say, being a school counselor is probably my most challenging [job],” Buczek said. “I’ve done three suicide screenings on fifth graders this year.”

Suicide ideation at school has increased dramatically since COVID-19, Buczek said, citing an uptick in anxiety and panic attacks. In the past, calling crisis was relatively uncommon, but recently it’s become more commonplace, said Cassandra Rodgers, counselor/social worker at Fountain Hills Elementary School.

“I’d say it was only very serious where we had to call crisis like three or four times a year,” Rodgers said, who spent three years working with Buczek at FHMS. “After COVID especially, there was so much isolation, and the kids just had a lot of anxiety when they came back.”

For Buczek, Rodgers and the staff at FHHS who were unable to meet before the printing of this story, it’s challenging to know when a student is at imminent risk of suicide. That’s why the staff at FHUSD are working towards having a singular, well-defined approach for dealing with threats of suicide or self-harm, which includes a shared suicide screening questionnaire.

“Questions like, ‘Did you have intent to do it?’ or ‘Did you have a plan?’ or ‘Have you thought about it often?’ that kind of thing, just to gather where they’re at,” Rodgers said. “It’s just good to open up that conversation even if you’re just concerned at all.”

Mia Elwood is the clinical director and founder of the Fountain Hills-based eating disorder treatment center, Healthy Futures, who uses a two-part assessment to ask her patients about suicidal thoughts.

“I like to do it that way because – especially for kids – they have to sort of learn to trust you first,” Elwood said. “I usually get more honesty and forthrightness and then I get a better picture of what they actually need.”

In one of her counseling sessions, a 14-year-old girl marked “zero” on a sliding-scale prompt about the frequency of suicidal thoughts. Over the weekend, however, the girl died of a fentanyl overdose, leaving Elwood and her staff in shock.

“Often, especially with suicide and fentanyl and those kinds of risk issues, it’s very hard for parents to know what to do or when to act,” Elwood said.

Elwood used the second and final assessment as a grief counseling session for the girl’s mother.

Electronic addiction

“We have a lot of kids who are getting bullied on social media and that is leading to a lot of anxiety and depression,” Rodgers said. “They leave school and they just constantly have to deal with all the pressure and bullying and mean comments because it's just on their phone constantly.”

Social media has become a breeding ground for a host of harmful activities, Buczek said, describing a meeting she had with a fifth grader who tried the viral TikTok blackout challenge of strangling oneself until they lose consciousness.

Buczek also notes an uptick in “electronic addictions” in students who spend unlimited hours online playing games, scrolling through social media and at times, purchasing illicit drugs.

According to figures provided by the Fountain Hills Coalition, the number of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl that are seized by law enforcement in Arizona has increased by 83% in the last year.

In 2022, the state of Arizona seized nearly half of all counterfeit pills containing fentanyl in the entire nation, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found.

Fentanyl is primarily brought into the U.S. from Mexico through drug cartels, the DEA concludes, which are primarily sold on social media and advertised as prescription medications.

In Elwood’s case, whose 14-year-old patient never made it to her second assessment, “her mom really thinks that it was truly accidental.”

“She didn't know she was getting fentanyl, which is a lot of times the story; they think they’re getting ADHD meds or Ritalin or Adderall and instead, it’s laced with [fentanyl] or it is [fentanyl],” Elwood continued.

In contrast, Buczek, Rodgers and Elwood agree that social media also provides crucial opportunities for intervention. For example, a student might show their counselor a screenshot of another student’s social media post threatening to harm themselves.

“I take that and give it to the parent,” Buczek said. “We have a duty to report.”

Just one friend

Rory Wilson entered FHHS as a junior after spending the bulk of her education at another school.

“All of a sudden, I was just in a new world where everyone had known each other their whole lives,” Wilson said.

Wilson dealt with cyberbullying which perpetuated her anxiety and thoughts of suicide. Despondent but eager to make just one connection, Wilson joined the tennis team and the Mayor’s Youth Council and slowly began to make friends.

Soon, Wilson looked forward to getting involved in the community. While volunteering, Wilson met Cheryl Ponzo, the Community Center’s program coordinator, who encouraged Wilson to apply for the Fountain Hills Leadership Academy (FHLA).

Wilson was accepted in the academy and hit the ground running, spearheading a project entitled Young Minds Initiative, an ongoing effort aimed at increasing mental health awareness in Fountain Hills.

Wilson is now a senior studying public policy and sociology at Arizona State University, who says mustering the courage to become involved, stay active and volunteer was challenging, but it helped her out of a major mental rut.

“Even just one friend, that one person can make a difference,” Wilson said.

In the spotlight

In 2004, Fountain Hills Theater Artistic Director Ross Collins remembers a tragic story of suicide that haunts him to this day.

“This young girl, I mean, not even fifth grade, took her life and then her friend followed her,” Collins said. “When you get to that point, you’re answering your own questions. You’re in an echo chamber and you have nowhere to turn.”

Based on their story and the stories of his childhood, Collins wrote a highly sensitive and emotionally-charged production entitled “Mumblety Peg,” which explores adolescent issues of teen depression, suicide and bullying, performed through the perspective of an impressionable boy playing a harmless childhood game.

“If two kids are talking about suicide, it can compel the one kid that's feeling suicidal to convince the other one that life sucks,” Collins said. “If you work to the point where ‘I’ve answered all my questions by myself, I have nothing left,’ then you need to have a guide. You need to have a counselor. There has to be a steady hand to help steer you.”

Community awareness

With the 988 National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in full swing and localized services like Solari Crisis Response Network (844-534-HOPE), suicide services are available now more than ever. Wilson said spreading awareness is as simple as acknowledging the people in their own circles and the struggles that are under the surface.

“It's not isolated to one family. It's not isolated to one organization. Suicide is a community issue,” she said. “Whether you work at Safeway, you work in the school district, you're a first responder, you're going to interact with someone experiencing mental illness at some point in your life whether you know it or not.”

For parents and guardians who find it difficult connecting with their kids, Elwood said joining a support group like the one at Healthy Futures to talk through their struggle is important because “increasingly, there’s another parent that has gone through what you’re going through.

“Just open those lines of communication and really make space in your daily life for more vulnerable conversations to happen because, in our daily lives, it’s easy to not make space for that.”