September is suicide prevention month.
Students at Greater Johnstown High School took a proactive approach outside the classroom to spread awareness.
“We got together as a class and decided to make a video on it so we can get it out to the community,” junior Darrian Berkis says.
It wasn’t part of a required project or homework assignment, but an effort done after school by students to show friends, classmates, and the Trojan community that support is here.
“Honestly suicide doesn’t get enough awareness around the nation or around the world,” says junior student Keyshawn Savory.
The students at Greater Johnstown created the video to call more attention to this very real problem. It’s called the “Semicolon Project.”
“A semicolon is used when an author could have ended a sentence, but chose not to,” Cassidy Klein explains. Klein, a junior, says that you are the author and the sentence is your life. She and others are encouraging students and community members to draw a semicolon on their wrist for the rest of September to promote awareness. It’s a project close to their hearts.
“I admit I have some depression moments, some moments I get down,” Savory says.
“I had my own struggles with mental illness, so I got it tattooed on my wrist,” Klein adds.
Their story has already gone farther than they thought, and in only a few days. It has more than 13,000 views and 500 shares on Facebook
“It has reached all over the community, which is great,” student Sydney Baumgardner, who shot and edited the video, says.
Klein says they want their message of hope to go beyond the Johnstown community.
“I was in such a dark place for so long and it’s really amazing to be able to spread the word because something so simple as drawing a semicolon on your wrist can really save someone’s life.”
To view the video CLICK HERE.