It’s a scary thought, but it is reality. More than 20% of teenagers have at one point seriously considered taking their own lives.

One community in upstate New York is looking to help teachers better understand what warning signs to look for in classrooms.

“It took us 27 years really,” Vinny Lobdell said.

It's never easy to talk about loss. Lobdell's brother, Rusty Lobdell, was just 19 when he took his own life, and it's taken three decades for his family to find the path to healing.

“Seeing what my mother went through and, of course, our whole family, we wanted to turn that into good. It's not just about donating money. We've talked about this many times. It's about spending time and genuinely and authentically listening to people and what's going on in their lives,” Vinny Lobdell added.

In honor of Rusty, and to raise awareness of mental health, the Lobdell family recently donated $1 million to Oswego Health — in large part to host events.

Dr. Dan Reidenberg is a mental health expert who focuses on suicide and suicide prevention. Funding from the Lobdells helped bring him to the Pulaski Central School District to give a special presentation to staff.

“It's really important to be able to identify some of the warning signs that put people at risk, and to know what to do, how to have those conversations with young people,” Reidenberg said of his presentation.

It's a lesson that's becoming increasingly critical as the pandemic has changed the way everyone – and school districts – view mental health. Staff having those tools, that understanding, is more important now than ever.

“Growing up and being a kid is hard, and it's always been hard. But, you know, with the uptick and social media and how kids view themselves in their environment, kids nowadays as fifth-graders are so much more aware,” Pulaski Middle-High School Principal Jordan Fahnestock said.

One in three young adults have experienced a mental, behavioral or emotional health issue in the past year. Twenty-seven percent of teenagers have said those issues have become behavioral, and now 37% of high school students are reporting feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Suicide has become the second-leading cause of death among teenagers.

“We're not just teaching content anymore, you know? We're teaching kids how to be good people, how to be the best version of themselves,” Fahnestock said. “This is what we need more of. It's just going out of your way to be kind to others,” said Lobdell, adding that he has plans to expand programming into Syracuse and beyond.