MEADVILLE — Two local high schools are dealing with two suicides that took place within the same week.

Sunday, Saegertown High School student Jordan Shaffer, 15, died at his Meadville home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Crawford County Coroner Scott Schell.

Wednesday, the body of Conneaut Area Senior High student Rikelle Renee Sayers was discovered in a wooded area of North Shenango Township by a hunter scouting for deer. According to Schell, the location, 300 to 500 yards off Bentley Road, was not far from where Sayers, who was reported missing Sunday, was last seen. Although final results are pending, Schell has determined that the death appeared to be suicide by hanging.

Asked if suicide notes had been found at either scene, “There was no communication,” Schell said, noting that the lack of a note under such circumstances is not unusual.



The Conneaut response

“You can’t really ever prepare for this,” Conneaut School District Superintendent Jarrin Sperry said Thursday, less than a day after the search for Sayers ended with the discovery of her body. “We’re devastated as a school community. Our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers go out to her family and friends.”

Thursday morning, the district’s crisis team, which consists of all the district’s counselors, was joined by adolescent grief counselors from Hospice of Crawford County. “We have counselors available for students and staff — and we will do our best to work through this,” Sperry said. “It’s a very sad event. Words can’t express how sad this is.”

Helping grieving students put their sadness into words was at the top of the agenda for Dona Clendenin, a registered nurse who also serves as clinical manager of the Hospice Titusville office, and Kelly Clark, a social worker who serves as the organization’s bereavement coordinator.

Giving the students a time and space to come together — to be able to talk about their feelings about what happened — is traditionally one of their first orders of business, just as dealing with general misconceptions about grief and specific misconceptions about what may just have happened also plays an important role in the process.

“We all need to realize that this takes time,” Clendenin said. “It’s not something that’s going to be over in a day or a week.” While reactions are individual, some things can almost be depended upon. For example, just when things start to become bearable, the pain can come roaring back like a lion.

“We really feel that the school did a wonderful job in handling this situation,” Clendenin said.

Kelly agreed. “They were open to all the possibilities and had really thought out what would be beneficial,” Kelly agreed. “They let the kids know what the help would be and who would be there. They didn’t put any pressure on them to come or not come. They maintained as normal a day as they could, but they let the kids seek what help they needed — and when they needed it. They really gave the gift of as much time as they needed to the kids today. They let them be together for as long as they needed to be.”



The Saegertown response

At Saegertown High School, where everyone has been dealing with Shaffer’s death since Monday, “teachers and staff have been provided with information regarding how to address the emotional concerns and needs of our children,” Superintendent Connie Youngblood said in a formal statement released Thursday. “School psychologists and guidance counselors were available to provide assistance and to talk to students all week. Jordan’s pastor was also available at the school to meet with students.”

In addition, a letter to parents explaining the availability of counseling support and funeral arrangements was sent home Monday with each student.

By mid-week, however, a number of rumors were circulating. For example, a school-related bullying connection to Shaffer’s death was being claimed. “Upon news of this situation the building administration reached out to the family of the student and have worked closely with them,” Youngblood said. “If there’s indication that anything that went on in school is related to this, we will investigate,” she added, calling upon anyone with concrete information to contact district administrators immediately. “That’s why we spent six years putting a bullying prevention program in place.”

It was also being said that students were being told to not wear yellow in honor of suicide awareness and not to decorate Shaffer’s hall locker in his memory.

“Social media has taken something that doesn’t have a grain of truth to it and spun it out of control,” Youngblood told the Tribune on Thursday. “This is a new thing for us to deal with.”

In Monday’s letter, Saegertown parents were told that the information that high school or district officials have prohibited the wearing of yellow shirts or ribbons in memory of Shaffer is simply not correct. “Students are welcome to honor their classmate in this manner, so long as any activity is appropriate and not disruptive to the school environment,” the letter read.

Youngblood told the Tribune that floral arrangements and decorations put in front of Shaffer’s locker had been moved by the principal to the church for the viewing because school administrators thought the tributes should be shared with the grieving family.

Both Youngblood and Sperry spoke with the Tribune on Thursday morning from Hershey, where they are attending Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and Pennsylvania School Boards Association’s annual leadership conference.



Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.