CCBOE assembly raises mental health awareness with message from Hilinski's Hope founders

Apr. 25—More than 1,700 Cullman County high school students came together Tuesday, April 23, for a districtwide assembly in preparation for the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month.

The assembly, hosted by Temple Baptist Church, featured several speakers including church staff and former School Resource Officer, Cullman County Sheriff's Office Investigator Jeff Lawson. However, the event largely focused on founders of the Hilinski's Hope Foundation Mark and Kym Hilinski who lost their 21-year-old son, Tyler, to suicide in 2018.

In a video announcing the event Superintendent Shane Barnette said mental health awareness has become a much more prevalent focus among the district's education officials over the last several years.

"The mental health struggles that our students have, and that our adults have, is continually on the rise," Barnette said. "If we don't intervene with adults and with students that are struggling with mental health issues it affects so many things. It affects their learning, but it also affects how they make friends, how they interacts with their parents, how they interact with each other and so many other aspects. Probably every aspect of their lives."

CCBOE Mental Health Services Coordinator Karen Pinion said she has witnessed issues such as anxiety and depression affecting the lives of more children each year, some as young as elementary students.

"Within our schools, it does appear that students are struggling more and more with mental health concerns. Anxiety is one of the greatest indicators that we see. These issues affect male and female students alike and it begins as early as elementary school," Pinion said.

The most recent Kids Count Data Book published by the non-profit organization VOICES for Alabama's Children, shows 433 children with a serious emotional disturbance were receiving some form of mental health service in Cullman County in 2022. One of the criteria for a serious emotional disturbance is suicidal ideations or gestures as a result of a mental health diagnosis.

The report also shows how from 2011-2021 Cullman County's preventable teen death rate — defined as suicide, homicide or accident — more than doubled from 39.1 per 100,000 to 94.2, well above the state average of 72.3.

Barnette said the CCBOE has implemented a variety of resources to address the rising number of students struggling with mental health, such as contracting with outside mental health agencies, staffing three full-time social workers and hosting mental health assemblies such as the one Tuesday with the Hilinski's.

At the beginning of his speech, Mark Hilinski admitted to not being a profound public speaker. He also said he by no means considered himself an expert on mental health. He said more than anything he considered himself and Kym to be "grieving parents" who founded Hilinski's Hope with the goal of raising mental health awareness and reducing the stigma associated with it after their son's death.

Mark said none of his family members had any knowledge of Tyler's mental health struggles prior to his death which left them following "breadcrumbs" of information to make sense of the tragedy after-the-fact. One of the main goals of these "Tyler Talks" is to encourage students to reach out for help and discuss their issues before they reach a crisis point.

"The only thing we know about it is that he struggled and that he got sick, he didn't ask for help and in his case he passed away," Mark said. "We do these talks for one reason. It's because we think these are things Tyler would have responded to that could have pushed the needle just a little more in his favor.

The Hilinski's partnered with Talladega City Schools in December 2023, to launch a pilot program offering a modified mental health curriculum developed by Prevention Strategies geared for high school students.

The program consists of six modules which focus on how identifying mental health issues in themselves and others.

Pinion said the Hilinski's met with CCBOE principals before implementing the program in February before it was implemented last month. She said district administration had already been planning for a spring assembly, but after meeting with the couple, those plans were modified to feature the two speakers.

She said based on the overwhelming amount of feedback she had received by Wednesday morning, she believed the event was a success.

"I think we have put on a number of worthwhile events and assemblies and have had some incredible speakers. All of those previous events have been phenomenal and have had some great information. With that said, hands down the amount of phone calls, emails and texts I have received saying how great it was has been far more than any other event we have done," Pinion said.

Pinion said representatives from Cullman City Schools as well as several school systems in surrounding counties, including the Alabama State Department of Education, also attended the event and expressed interest in bringing the Hilinski's to speak to their students in the future.

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