JOYCE — Sixteen teenagers stood in a quiet line in front of an audience, most dressed in jeans and sweatshirts, with their faces set in serious looks.
“This is how many kids committed suicide today,” Debbie Phillips said into a microphone while the audience sat in silence.
“This is the most valuable resource we have in America,” Phillips said. “We can’t afford to lose another kid.”
In a public presentation that drew more than 100 Crescent School students, parents and community members to the school’s gymnasium Tuesday evening, Phillips, a motivational speaker, talked about suicide, materialism, hate, sexual activity, drugs and alcohol, and the strong Christian beliefs she and her family share with her niece, who was killed in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado five years ago.
Phillips’ program, called Life Choices, is designed to bring a positive message of hope to both students and their families.
The appearance was sponsored by Joyce Bible Church, several community groups and businesses to help Joyce-area residents cope with a recent classroom suicide, a second suicide and other recent losses in the community.
The evening program carried a strong message of Christianity, including an “altar call” at the end.
Educators said an in-school Life Choices assembly for Crescent middle school and high school students earlier in the day — and partially sponsored by the school’s associated student body — instead focused on students’ values and choices.
“I think the school-setting assembly was very appropriate,” ASB adviser David Bingham, who also teaches high school social studies and is Crescent School District’s athletic adviser, said Wednesday.
“I think the evening community-sponsored program filled a niche, too.”
