Kassidy Wilkinson

Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer mental health support system focused on suicide prevention. Lead Counselor Sarah Cable volunteered Cedar Park High School to be the first campus in the district to implement the program into the school. “In my previous campus, I had three suicides,” Cable said. “It’s really, really hard. Hard to go through those things. Having the three losses of students on campus was so tragic and detrimental to everyone that knew them and was around them and their families and friends. If we can prevent the loss of a life and be proactive, I think we should try anything that we can. [By trying Hope Squad] we’re not just trying something willy-nilly; we’re trying something that schools have been using for a while and has seen success with.”

Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer mental health support system focused on suicide prevention.

In over 1600 schools nationwide, the Hope Squad is a growing organization, expanding internationally with locations in Canada. Lead Counselor Sarah Cable volunteered Cedar Park High School to be the first campus in the district to implement this squad into the school, a decision based on her experience at the last school she worked at.

“At my previous campus, I had three suicides,” Cable said. “It’s really, really hard to go through those things. Having the three losses of students on campus was so tragic and detrimental to everyone who knew them, and was around them and their families and friends. If we can prevent the loss of a life and be proactive, I think we should try anything that we can. [By trying the Hope Squad] we’re not just trying something willy-nilly but something that schools have been using for a while and has seen success with.”

The Hope Squad will consist of peer-nominated students who will be trained to look for signs of concern in fellow students. They will also be trained to respond to these signs and connect students to the right resources, including the counselors on campus or sources off campus.

“I’ve worked with teenagers for 22 years now, and [they] tend to talk to each other more or first before reaching out to adults for help,” Cable said. “I think the idea of having peers on campus that are specifically trained to have those conversations, hopefully, will make [struggling students] feel more comfortable in reaching out to someone their age and starting to request that help.”

Members of the Hope Squad will be announced to the school so that other students will know who they are. It is very important that these individuals are students that others can trust, Cable says.

“[Hope Squad will be] students that you feel comfortable talking to,” Cable said. “They are empathetic and compassionate, reliable, friendly, and not someone who’s a bully or anything like; [someone students] feel like they can approach.”

Math teacher Joanna Pangilinan and interior design teacher Katie Travis are the lead teachers involved with the Hope Squad.

“Even if we can only help one person, it’s totally worth it,” Pangilinan said. “Over the past few years, my own children have experienced the loss with their friends because of suicide. And since I’ve lived through that myself, [the Hope Squad] became something that I really wanted to get involved with.” 

“This year is really like initiation,” Cable said. “We’re walking in, not blind because we’ve been through training, but not ever having done it, to see how it goes. I’m sure that we’ll tweak it along the way to make it a better fit for our campus, but I’m hoping [it will be] successful.”

The benefits for students involved will be big, according to Pangilinan.

“I think that the students, as they are being trained and learning about [suicide prevention], are going to [learn] tools to help themselves,” Pangilinan said. “I suffer from anxiety, I suffer from depression sometimes, just like everybody else, and you build tools for yourself to help yourself get through those things. I think that the students in Hope Squad, even though they will be helping other students, they are going to learn also how to help themselves, which is amazing.”

Students can nominate their peers for Hope Squad by filling out a Google Form posted on their class of google classrooms. More information about the organization can be found on the Hope Squad website.

“We’re the first school [in our district to implement Hope Squad], but I’m hoping it spreads,” Cable said. “Hope Squad has support all the way from high school, middle school, and elementary school. So if we can get into elementary schools and we can help the students that are struggling there before they even get here, that’s a true benefit.”