By MICHELLE BEAHM
mbeahm@northkitsapherald.com

POULSBO — There have been two reported suicides among North Kitsap School District students this year, and four in the past five years, according to the school district.

The district will host seminars on March 24 to, hopefully, prevent future youth suicides: 4:30 p.m. in the Kingston High School Library, and 7 p.m. in the North Kitsap High School Library. To register, contact Jenn Markaryan, jmarkaryan@nkshools.org or 360-396-3004. The seminars are free and open to the public.

“Anyone who has an interest in helping our youth with stress and depression, anyone who’s really interested in assisting our youth and being involved in preventing youth suicide” is welcome to attend, said Markaryan, NKSD communications coordinator.

Paid for with a grant from the Olympic Educational Service District, the seminar will address adolescent stress and depression, some of the causes, and how adults can support youth in those areas.

Mary Jadwisiak, a field coordinator with the Youth Suicide Prevention Program, will be the presenter. She said she’s been presenting similar seminars throughout the state for more than a decade.

“My style is very practical,” Jadwisiak said, adding that she’s a mom too. “I’m not a doctor, and so I keep my talks very conversational and very practical, and so people can relate to that and people leave feeling empowered and feeling like (they) can do this.”

Jadwisiak said the upcoming seminar is “part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention” in North Kitsap.

“I think it’s really fantastic when a community decides to step up and support their young people in any way,” she said. “It’s really good to talk about suicide, and I’m excited to come up there and talk about suicide prevention and how we can work together to keep kids safe.”

Jadwisiak said suicide prevention is “no one person’s job,” and the more people that can become involved in it, the better.

“If you’re a parent or a coach or a teacher or a youth pastor or a neighbor or employer … what I’m going to be talking about is really relevant to anybody in the community,” Jadwisiak said. “It’s not just for parents.”

She said that in the past, attendees have told her they’ve learned things they can “implement right away” and received information that “really made them stop and think.”

“Nobody wants to think that their kid is going to kill themselves,” Jadwisiak said. “And so we don’t think about this kind of thing, and when it happens … you don’t even know what to look for.”

She said teenagers often lack the life experience to let them know that whatever they’re experiencing that might be causing them pain or stress is temporary, and that part of being a parent or being involved in any sort of relationship with young people is helping them through those time periods.

“I think part of parenting is just being prepared for the unexpected,” Jadwisiak said. “The more that we as adults can learn about how to support young people, the far better off our relationships with them is going to be.”

For more information about the seminar, contact Jadwisiak at mary@yspp.org or 360-687-7954.