Mother who lost son to suicide shares story in hopes of saving lives
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WKRC) - It’s been a painful and tragic week for the Forest Hills School District. A 12th-grader took his life on Monday night.
At least five young men ages 12 to 18 in the Forest Hills School District have taken their lives since 2018. A vigil took place Thursday night at Anderson Hills United Methodist Church for the most recent death.
A mother who lost her son to suicide in 2019 in that school district spoke to Local 12 about the lasting effects this kind of loss brings with it.
Tiffany Kimble made it very clear she does not like the spotlight, and she doesn’t want her son’s story to be sensationalized or exploited. She just wants to save young lives.
“I think the first thing we can do is recognize that it is an epidemic,” said Kimble.
Her handsome, athletic and popular son Ben took his life in 2019. He was a freshman in high school.
“Ben was an amazing kid. We miss him very much,” said Kimble.
To lose a child is a grief she can’t explain, but what she wants to shout loud and clear is the system for kids to get help needs to change.
“There are children and people struggling at this very moment in your community. I don’t like to share some of the personal things about my son Ben, but I can tell you this, that he told me, ‘Mom, I think I have anxiety and depression,'” said Kimble.
Finding resources was timely, confusing and exhausting. Kimble believes Ben didn’t have the proper language to describe the seriousness of his invasive thoughts. So while they worked to treat his anxiety and depression, there was something much more serious going on.
“You're told to look for if your child withdraws or if you’re not very social or involved in a lot of activities, and what I can say is that is not what we are seeing in our area,” said Kimble about the five young men who have died by suicide in the school district.
The Forest Hills community tries to heal, but with each death, the wound reopens. Kimble carries her son’s legacy by reaching out to the other families whose lives are forever altered by this tragic loss of a child.
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“We carpool them, we feed them, we celebrate their victories and ... we share in the grief,” said Kimble.
To stem the tide, Kimble says we all need to fight this fight.
“We can’t just talk about this when it happens. We have to have these discussions ongoing with our schools, with our health care providers. We have to demand more,” said Kimble.
In situations like this, the district utilizes the Traumatic Event Crisis Intervention Team, which includes support from district staff, school counselors, school psychologists and other mental health professionals to help students deal with the grief.