Ashlynn Conner and Coming Together to Help Kids

As I've been reading the reports about Ashlynn Conner, it is difficult not to cry when you think about the death of a 10-year-old fifth-grader who appears to have taken her own life.  Ashlynn's death is a tragedy.

Suicide is a leading cause of death among teenagers and adolescents in America.  That needs to sink in.  There is a lot of discussion and finger-pointing about bullying, and at what point kids being kids cross the line into something far worse than schoolyard taunting.  Many states have considered bullying laws.  While those laws have passed in many states, such as in Kentucky were a new law sailed through after just a short period of testimony, there are states like Indiana were the laws don't even make it out of committee.  It is easy not to let those laws out of committee for full debate on the floor, and it is easy to point at the individual schools and claim principals and schools boards can effectively write their own polices.  But when 300 people line the streets in tiny Ridge Farm, Illinois, just across the Indiana state line, all of the excuses in the world won't bring Ashlynn back.  And make no mistake, when a child dies in a tragic suicide, anything we say that doesn't bring her back is just an excuse.  We need to do more. We have to do more.  We need to take a stand.

Preventing bullying isn't just about ridding our schools and communities of the peer-to-peer verbal harassment and physical abuse that happens in hallways, locker rooms and playgrounds.  It is about stopping behavior that can start a young person down a path that sometimes has a tragic end.  The Vermillion County Sheriff, Patrick Hartshorn, was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying "We haven't uncovered something so severe that it would result in someone taking their own life."  The trouble is, we have no way of knowing, and we may never know, how hurtful certain things may have been to Ashlynn.  What we do know, what is absolute fact, is that Ashlynn is gone.  Ashlynn was found by her own sister, unresponsive in their own home.  I can't even begin to imagine the heartbreak that family is experiencing.

I hope Ashlynn's death helps bring people together and helps us undertand that we need to work together if we are going to prevent suicides of young people in our communities.  Please keep reading my blog to learn more about bullying, teen suicide, and what you can do to take a stand and make a difference in the life of a child.