{"id":96042,"date":"2019-01-22T17:58:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T00:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-cortez-middle-school-students-die-by-suicide\/"},"modified":"2019-01-22T17:58:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T00:58:21","slug":"two-cortez-middle-school-students-die-by-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-cortez-middle-school-students-die-by-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Cortez Middle School students die by suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Two
Two Cortez Middle School students reportedly died by suicide this weekend.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Over the long weekend, two Cortez Middle School students died by suicide, and one district high school student attempted suicide, according to school district officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime that we lose a student, that\u2019s one too many students,\u201d Superintendent Lori Haukeness told The Journal.<\/p>\n

The two students who died were friends, Haukeness said, but it is not known Tuesday whether the incidents were related. While they were technically enrolled in the middle school, they had not been attending classes for some time, she said.<\/p>\n

Haukeness confirmed that one of the students was 15-year-old Jeit Redrock Height. According to his obituary<\/a>, was a lifelong resident of Towaoc. He is survived by his parents and seven siblings. Four brothers preceded him in death, the obituary said.<\/p>\n

Haukeness declined to identify the other student.<\/p>\n

The district on Tuesday emailed a letter to the school community regarding the deaths, urging families to speak with their children about their feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young person\u2019s death is always tragic, and a sudden loss like this can have a significant effect on surviving students, our school, and our community,\u201d Haukeness wrote in the letter. \u201cIt is important that we recognize this loss and offer help. This is a sensitive issue for young people and their families, and we suggest that you talk with your children about their feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that both the middle and high school have extra counselors on hand this week to speak with students regarding grief and loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wellbeing and safety of our students, as educators, are at the forefront of our concern,\u201d Haukeness said. \u201cOur heartfelt condolences to the students\u2019 families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for suicide prevention efforts within Montezuma-Cortez schools is recognized. At the district\u2019s board meeting last week, two youth representatives from the Pi\u00f1on Project spoke to the board advocating for Sources of Strength, a suicide prevention program, to be better implemented in Cortez schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also important to let young people know that it is OK to ask for help from an adult if they or someone they know is struggling with depression, anxiety, or thoughts of suicide,\u201d Haukeness said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County residents who are struggling with depression, substance abuse or suicidal thoughts may call Axis Health System\u2019s 24-hour crisis hotline at 970-247-5245 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255. Axis\u2019 Montezuma County offices are at Cortez Integrated Healthcare, 691 E. Empire St.<\/p>\n

ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District urges families to speak with children about feelings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96042"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}