Debbie Reisert was presented with the Tina Orwall award on Nov. 30.
Seven years ago, Debbie Reisert’s life was turned upside down in the small community of Packwood.
Her teenage grandson, who had come to live with her, came home from school upset one Monday. But Reisert didn’t know that her grandson, Brian, had talked about suicide at school earlier in the day.
Sometime later, he walked to a nearby trailer, found a weapon and took his own life.
Following this, Reisert has become a powerful advocate for suicide prevention both locally and in the state.
Reisert was honored with the Tina Orwall Public Service Award during a suicide awareness dinner in November.
The award was presented by Forefront, a suicide prevention organization. A press release from Forefront spokeswoman Aimee Chou said Reisert has been instrumental in advancing suicide prevention efforts in and around Packwood.
Reisert helped Forefront draft and lobby the state Legislature to include suicide prevention training at schools and set up protocols for how to handle students in crisis.
Reisert was also instrumental in getting White Pass School District to schedule training recently to meet the requirements of House Bill 1336, as well as raising funds.
“She was able to raise over $3,000 to provide educational resources to her community and schools,” Jennifer Barron, project director for Forefront’s Rural Suicide Prevention Initiative said in the press release.
Reisert told The Chronicle in a recent interview about how she lost her grandson to suicide in 2009. Brian’s mother had gone through a divorce in Gig Harbor and sent him to live with her for the previous six months.
“We just felt like it would be a good thing for him to come down here,” she said.
On one Friday, one of Brian’s friends attempted suicide. The following Monday, Brian came home from school upset. She didn’t know at the time that a staff member at the White Pass School District had known he was talking about suicide at school, but didn’t pass the information along to her.
It wasn’t until months later that Reisert found out school staff had known.
“When I started asking more questions, I found out it wasn’t the law in Washington state to notify parents,” she said.
Reisert said she was initially angry with the school, but realized that the problems went deeper than any particular agency.
“It really is a systemic problem,” she said.
In response, she partnered with Forefront to help pass House Bill 1336, which requires training for counselors and principals.
Under the law, if a teacher learns a student is thinking of taking his or her life, they ask them about it, and if it is deemed to be a serious threat, they keep the student with them until medical professionals or emergency responders can talk with the student.
But another hurdle to the training was a lack of funding. Reisert said a grant for training was awarded to 14 schools in King County, but no funding was provided to other schools.
“There wasn’t any money for the rural schools, so we raised the money,” she said.
Reisert contacted businesses in Packwood and Randle and organized a gun safe raffle to raise funds for training at the White Pass school district.
Reisert was also featured in a miniature documentary called “Full Circle,” which was directed by Rick Stevenson and chronicles the transition Packwood has undertaken thanks to Reisert’s advocacy.
She was presented with the Tina Orwall award on Nov. 30.
