Trevor R. Simpson Award Winners

YSPP is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2005-2006 Trevor R. Simpson Award.

To see past winners:

South Kitsap High School was selected among schools with an enrollment of 1,000 students or more and Crescent School was selected as the small school winner. The two schools that were recognized with honorable mention are Medical Lake High School and Cheney High School.

South Kitsap High School (enrollment ­ 2,250) had twelve students on their team under the leadership of Carl Olson and Mary Pugh. Student-members of South Kitsap prevention team gave 30 classroom presentations that reached over 1,000 students and faculty. Tom Juvic, a psychology teacher, and one of the faculty who opened up their classrooms for the 45-minute presentation explained their value by saying, "Kids come to me quite a bit; I think part of that is the adults who have hosted these sessions become identified as helping adults. So I have kids that I really don't know that well who come up to me and say, hey, we've got this friend that we are worried about - what can we do?" The prevention team also distributed posters, Lifesaver candies and wristbands to students during the presentations. Dave Columbini has supported suicide prevention efforts at South Kitsap High School for the past six years and believes that these educational efforts have made staff more aware but more significantly it has helped turn several students' lives around, so that they are now able to help others who feel desperate and suicidal.

We wish to congratulate South Kitsap High School on a very successful suicide prevention campaign. This fall Trevor's parents, Leah and Scot Simpson will travel to Port Orchard and formally present the school with the award.

Crescent School (enrollment ­ 230) has been selected the winner of the Trevor R. Simpson Award for the 2005-2006 school year in the small school category! The award - named in honor of Trevor Simpson who died by suicide in 1992 at the age of 16 recognizes the efforts of schools that designed and implemented exemplary youth suicide prevention campaigns.

Under the leadership of Sheri Jones, the Crescent prevention team gave 14 classroom presentations that reached over 750 people; these included students and staff in neighboring school districts: Cape Flattery, Port Angeles, Forks and Sequim. The team also organized a community-wide "walk and talk" that brought 120 adults and youth together at Crescent School. Following a walk around the track in honor of suicide prevention, the participants were invited into the cafeteria for an educational presentation. Each month during the year it seems that there was a small or large focus on preventing youth suicide, like passing out Lifesaver candy or distributing cards with crisis hotline numbers.

What they know all too well is the horrible tragedy that occurred on their campus two and one-half years ago. [A 7th grade student came into his classroom with a gun in a guitar case, pulled it out and shot himself.] From our perspective it seems that a substantial amount of healing has occurred for the students in the process of their organizing and implementing these prevention efforts.

We wish to congratulate Crescent School on a very successful suicide prevention campaign. This fall Trevor's parents, Leah and Scot Simpson, and a YSPP representative will travel to Joyce to formally present Sheri and the prevention team with the award.

We will formally recognize two new winners next fall.