In April of last school year, teachers met to discuss the implementation of Hope Squad. Hope Squad is a one-on-one suicide prevention program for students. Hope Squad; empowers students; to build meaningful connections with their peers; to create a culture of caring and support within the school, the community, and within themselves.

While the purpose of Hope Squad is to spread hope, students who participate or join the Hope Squad will also learn how to help others. Hope Squad advisor and English teacher Emily Dizebba states, “Students who join Hope Squad learn about signs of distress in their peers- and are trained with QPR techniques (Question, persuade, refer) to any issues a student might have.” Suicide prevention is not Hope Squad’s primary purpose. And Hope Squad is growing in popularity nationwide. So, a school can only benefit from spreading hope and awareness.

Hope Squad, much like SADD and Project Harmony- will have spirit weeks and assemblies for students to raise awareness. Hope Squad advisor and CTE teacher Gregory Weichert states, “There will be assemblies in the future to talk about hope and how no matter what you have going on, there is a positive to every negative,” Weichert also states, “The school truly sees that and wants to embrace those moments of hope.”

Maintaining and finding hope can be a difficult task to endure in high school. And for students to know that they can depend on their fellow peers on the Hope Squad and know that there will be no judgment. Not disregarded or overwhelmed with too many questions that might not pertain to what a student is going through. As Weichert puts it, “Perception is a little different than what you know if you just change your thinking.”