At last week’s meeting of Benicia Unified School District trustees, many members of the community spoke about Board Policy BP 5141.52, which addresses suicide prevention.

First to speak was Barbara Gervase, the mother of Kyle Hyland, the Benicia High School junior who took his own life Dec. 22, 2014.

Gervase first commended the district on the positive changes being planned for mental health services for students. But she said she believed that there was more that could, and should, be done.

“The rate of suicide attempts is on the rise since Kyle passed, with one per week in January and February versus the historical rate of one per month,” she said. “This indicates that real sweeping change is urgently needed.”

By “change,” Gervase said, she meant “specific programs to increase mental health awareness in a systematic way” — including training for parents and students as well as counselors, teachers and staff.

She said the new policy, which requires intervention procedures in the event of a suicide attempt on campus or during a school activity, was a step in the right direction. But she had concerns.

“What about suicides or attempts off campus?” she asked. “Kyle’s death, which occurred off campus, had an effect on every teen at the high school, and many at (Benicia) Middle School. All of the appropriate procedures were not followed after Kyle’s death, and it is my opinion that this contributed to the elevation in the rate of suicide attempts.”

Gervase urged the district to employ a comprehensive suicide prevention toolkit similar to that used by Palo Alto Unified School District, which documents all training, procedures and programs. It can be found at http://pausd.org/parents/services/health/downloads/ComprehensiveSuicidePreventionToolkitforSchools.pdf.

“We need something that ties back to the suicide prevention policy, documenting what we are actually doing versus what we ‘may’ do,” she said.

She also recommended bringing Sources of Strength, a universal suicide prevention program, to the high school.

Sources of Strength’s mission is “to provide the highest quality prevention for suicide, violence, and substance abuse by training, supporting and empowering both peer leaders and caring adults to impact their friendship networks and by using rigorous testing to maximize health and protection in the real world,” according to its website, sourcesofstrength.org/.

“The stress that our children are under is often extreme, and without proper emotional support these kids are in trouble,” Gervase said. “We need to build their resiliency by teaching them the coping skills they can rely upon when times get tough.”

As a legacy for Kyle, Gervase and her husband George Hyland started a nonprofit called the Kyle Hyland Foundation for Teen Support, “with a vision to start a teen center in Benicia where kids can be provided support through social interaction, music, art, counseling and mentoring,” Gervase said.

“We would like to become a bridge to other caring adults of the middle and the high school so that troubled teens and their parents get the support and referrals that they so desperately need,” she said.

More information on the Kyle Hyland Foundation for Teen Support can be found on their Facebook page, facebook.com/kylehylandfoundation.

Gervase requested that the subject of mental wellness be brought up for periodic discussion at school board meetings. “You have the power to make the difference, so that no family will have to suffer the loss that we have suffered,” she said.

Another speaker, Dianna Chiabotti, also spoke of that loss.

“Teachers and staff need to be trained on what to do in the event of a suicide completion,” Chiabotti said.

“Staff and faculty of Benicia Unified need professional development and training in order to be able to respond effectively to students after a completed suicide, use appropriate responses to students’ grief despite the staff members’ personal beliefs about suicide, and have age-appropriate expectations for the youth that they serve to the reaction to a completed suicide, including levels of grief, behavior and stress,” she said.

“Kyle Hyland was my daughter’s boyfriend,” Chiabotti continued. “On December 22 we also lost a part of our child. We have watched her and Kyle’s friends grieve, cope and try to come to terms with this horrific loss.”

“In many ways, these children, or teens, are adrift. They are still expected to go on as if nothing happened. Studying and completing homework, in addition to taking tests. I implore you to develop a strong policy and regulations so that we can confidently say that Benicia Unified did everything possible to prevent any more of its teens dying from suicide.”

Rick Small, a mentor at Liberty High School, was the last of several speakers. Also a Benicia Police Department chaplain, he was on call when Kyle took his life.

“It was a very dark day, especially for his family, but also for the community, and also for the youth of this community,” Small said.

Small has been a part of Liberty High’s mentor program for 12 years, and said it is very successful.

“I have tried three times to initiate it at the middle school … one (time) I was told there was no funds for it, and the other two it kind of went away,” he said.

“The interesting thing about funds is, I already had six volunteers who were cleared at the police department for a background check. So with all volunteers, there was no need for funds, but it just went away.”

Small said that a teen crisis center is “100-percent a must.”

“For the success we have seen in the mentor program at Liberty High, to have folks that are there who care for the kids and are there every week — I know I can speak for myself and the other mentors who are in the room, our kids open up to us a lot, and I know we have headed off situations that could have turned devastating,” he said.

“To have a program like the mentoring program only at Liberty doesn’t make sense. It should be implemented not only at BMS but at BHS.”

Trustees next meet June 11.