Kirsten Fuchs believes “suicide” shouldn’t be a dirty word.
As the Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program Coordinator for NorthEast Washington Education Service District 101, Fuchs oversees substance abuse and suicide prevention programs. She’s witnessed the youth mental health crisis firsthand.
“It sucks being a teen right now in 2026,” she said.
According to the most recent data, more than 40% of U.S. high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2023. Twenty percent of students seriously considered attempting suicide during that time.
“Everyone has been affected,” Fuchs said. “It is not scary for us to talk about mental health with young people. They are aware of what's happening in their own brains.”
Suicide remains the second leading cause of death for U.S. children ages 10 to 14.
Collin Treppiedi, a senior at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, has struggled with depression and anxiety for much of his life. When he was 14 years old, his peers nominated him for a national, school-based program called Hope Squad, which teaches students to support peers struggling with their mental health.
“Going into my freshman year of high school [was] the first time we’d ever done it,” Treppiedi said. “And the past four years, we’ve been a strong group of kids trying to help with mental health.”
Across ESD 101’s schools, nominated students meet regularly with adult advisors to learn skills like active listening, crisis intervention and community building. They work within a model called the “HOPE” framework: “Heads up, offer support, provide information and empower your peers,” recited Fuchs, who oversees the program.
A recent Hope Squad retreat in Spokane drew more than 300 middle and high school students from 14 participating schools. Treppiedi and his peers mingled, practiced Hope Squad elevator pitches and listened to a keynote speech on mental health.
Kimber Erickson, the co-founder of the Kellen CARES nonprofit mental health foundation, helped bring Hope Squad to Spokane in 2023. The program’s peer-to-peer model impressed her from the start.
“If it’s a staff-based program, I think it’s just not as effective,” she said. “It doesn't engage the kids as much. It doesn't help those kids that are really struggling know where to go.”
Still, the peer system can be a tough sell. Fuchs sometimes hears from parents who worry Hope Squad places an extra emotional burden on their kids.
“‘I don't want my kid to be awake at 3 a.m. talking [a] friend off the ledge,’” Fuchs recalled parents saying.
She counters those concerns: “I have to be honest and say they're [already] doing that…I would rather have a student do that with the tools, knowing what they can do.”
Based on data from Hope Squad referral surveys, Fuchs believes the program has prevented multiple youth suicides across the region.
She recalled a recent incident where the friend of a middle school boy sent him a concerning Snapchat message in the middle of the night.
“And he goes to his mom and says, ‘My Hope Squad referral process tells me I'm supposed to do this, Mom,’” Fuchs said. “And he called the crisis line, they got adults involved and he potentially saved his friend's life. And that’s exactly what we want.”
Part of the reason Fuchs is so passionate about this work is because she was once a teenager dealing with suicidal thoughts. Back then, she felt like there was no one who understood her; now, she feels a responsibility to help the teenagers around her feel differently.
“I see myself in a lot of these kids,” she said.
