- Students gathered at the Youth EmPOWER Summit in Bellevue to connect with peers and learn about suicide prevention and mental health resources
- Local educators and students emphasized the importance of showing up and supporting one another, with additional resources available at thekimfoundation.org
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV) – Students gathered at the Youth EmPOWER Summit in Bellevue on Thursday to learn how to protect their mental health and prevent suicide.
"Yeah, those names don't go away. Now, those faces don't go away. It's something that, yeah, it stays with me," Rohlfs said.
Bellevue West High School Principal Kevin Rohlfs said suicide prevention is personal.
"It's amazing. Sorry. We've got so many great kids. out there that want to help and want to make things better," Rohlfs said.
Students at Thursday’s event connected with each other and learned about resources from speakers. Omaha Bryan High School senior Kevin Trejo Orea was among the attendees.
"So I felt like it was very important for me to actually show up as well. Um, just show that, like, kids do care about these kinds of events," Trejo Orea said.
The event took place earlier this week after YouTube and Meta were found liable for harming children's mental health. The Kim Foundation’s Executive Director Molly Mullin Verble said she believes technology, like social media, is contributing to rising rates of people diagnosed with depression.
"Kids today are facing a lot more challenges than they have in the past. especially with technology, and peer to peer relationships," Mullin Verble said.
The Kim Foundation has a list of mental health resources on its website, thekimfoundation.org.
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