School district not backing down on yearbook memorial stance

Article content

The Anglophone South School District (ASD-S) isn’t backing down on its stance that a yearbook won’t feature a full memorial to a student who died by suicide, even with the province’s education minister saying it should.

The family of Carson Hoyt, who died by suicide at the age of 15 after completing Grade 9 at Hampton High School, has launched a petition urging the school for a memorial to be included in this year’s yearbook as it would be Carson’s graduating year. As of Monday afternoon, the online petition had gathered 8,700 signatures.

The petition and the media attention it has garnered prompted New Brunswick’s education minister, Bill Hogan, to weigh in late last week, noting he hopes the school district and the Hoyt family can work together to have Carson included in the yearbook.

“I am strongly encouraging the Anglophone South School District and officials at Hampton High School to work with the Hoyt family to ensure their son, Carson, is included in the school yearbook,” Hogan stated.

Carson’s mother, Amy, told Brunswick News her family has been overwhelmed by the community’s support and the signatures the petition has gathered. She said the family simply wants an appropriate memorial for Carson. As well, she said, the family wants more than “statements” of support from politicians and officials.

“Statements are good,” she said, “but we want to actually sit down and have a meeting and have someone talk with us and discuss this rather than make decisions over our head about us.”

Jessica Hanlon, director of communications for ASD-S, told Brunswick News the district will not be changing its position regarding a memorial for Carson, noting it is “currently developing a comprehensive crisis response policy which will include a section on memorials. Until that document is complete, we use the guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists.”

That guidance speaks specifically to memorials for students who have died by suicide and notes boards should not “make a permanent memorial following a suicide” and “choose memorials that are temporary, nonrenewable, or in the form of a ‘living’ memorial (e.g., monetary donation to charity or research, purchase of a suicide prevention program for students).” The guidance says those types of memorials will positively affect surviving students as opposed to “glorifying the students that died by suicide, which increases the risk that others will copy the act.”

Hanlon said the district was contacted by officials at Hampton High School regarding the yearbook memorial situation and it confirmed the guidelines to school officials.

Amy Hoyt said her family was told Carson would be included in the yearbook in a section regarding the school’s ‘Mental health Monday’ program but she didn’t feel that was appropriate and after she asked for further discussion she was told “not to contact the school any further. That was the only option we were given for a memorial.”

She said she didn’t feel including Carson in that particular section of the yearbook was appropriate because she doesn’t “want him remembered for the way that he died. Nobody can get that.”

Rather, she said, she wants her son to be remembered for who he was. She described Carson as “happy, athletic, popular. Everybody loved him. He was smart. He was very smart. He had quite a wide group of friends and he was just a great, great boy.”

He was smart. He was very smart. He had quite a wide group of friends and he was just a great, great boy.

Amy Hoyt

Hanlon said while the ‘Mental health Monday’ section was offered to the Hoyt family, the district is sticking to its policy but stressed photographs of Carson are to be included in the yearbook but not in the memorial style the family is asking for. She noted the policy is not unique to Hampton High School or even to the district and defended it based on the guidelines used.

“Our policy…. is not borne out of stigma or a desire to diminish the importance of any life, especially not due to the circumstances surrounding their death,” Hanlon told Brunswick News in an email. “Instead, it is the result of extensive consultation with mental health professionals and adherence to current, best practices in suicide prevention. Research and expert guidance, including from the Centre for Suicide Prevention, the National Association of School Psychologists, and Canadian Mental Health Association’s Centre for Suicide Prevention have shown us that permanent memorials in the school environment, such as yearbook tributes, can have serious unintended consequences for students grappling with their own mental health issues.”

Hanlon added in the past deaths may have been memorialized, but policies have evolved over time to reflect best practices in suicide prevention.

“We have been transitioning away from these types of permanent memorials and tributes for several years,” she stated.

“We know that there is a perception in the public that the policy is based on stigma around suicide. However, many involved in petitioning the school are aware that the decision is actually based on best practices in suicide-prevention, and it is unclear to us why there is reluctance to heed the advice of experts, if there was a chance it could save a life,” she added. “If there is even a possibility that these types of memorials might be risk-enhancers for vulnerable students, which the research is demonstrating, then it is not a risk we can take.”

Brandi McHarg, chairperson of the Saint John Suicide Prevention Committee, said there are valid concerns when it comes to there being vulnerable individuals and suicide contagion, and there has been research into such matters but there are specific terms and language that can be used.

But to her, there seems to be confusion surrounding the matter of what the Hoyt family is seeking and the district’s response.

“The Hoyts weren’t requesting a full-page memorial to Carson, they weren’t looking to have the yearbook dedicated to Carson, they simply wanted Carson included in the yearbook as a graduate as he would have been graduating this year,” she said.

McHarg, who said she knows the Hoyt family and has helped them, said when it comes to suicide “there’s always a potential risk” that it could spark others to act on suicidal thoughts if there’s “any type of sensationalisation” surrounding the topic, but stressed the Hoyt family request wasn’t for any type of sensationalized memorial.

“The matter of how he died shouldn’t impact the fact he should have graduated this year,” she said. “It goes back to how we treat mental health in a different way than we treat physical health and physical injuries and it’s not fair. The stigma still very much exists and, from our perspective on the suicide prevention committee, we do a lot of talks about the myths around suicide and one of the top ones is that talking about suicide will cause somebody to act upon their suicidal thoughts and it’s simply not true.”

McHarg said while she understands and appreciates the district’s point of view on the matter and its concern of putting anyone at risk, she stressed the Hoyts are not seeking a large, sensational memorial for Carson, they simply want their son included in the yearbook.

Amy Hoyt said she hopes the district will revisit its decision and the public reaction the petition has prompted will “open discussions about policies.”