By Jill Smith

Funeral held for Regina teen as students learn about bullying

Oct 28, 2013 | 4:07 PM

People gathered to mourn the death of a 13-year-old girl Monday at a church in the south end of Regina.

Savhanah Turcotte died last Tuesday in an apparent suicide. Almost immediately, people rallied on Facebook and brought up bullying as a potential cause. In Turcotte’s obituary, family asked for donations to go towards raising awareness about bullying in schools.

Meanwhile, dozens of blocks away from the funeral more kids were gathered at a Canadian Safe Schools conference downtown.

Mental health professional Suzanne Zwarych was talking to students at the meeting and she says talking about bullying is helpful.

“That can only be positive when you have children saying, 'I’m not comfortable with this behaviour' instead of just saying, 'Well, this is normal. This is always what happens to Grades 7, 8, and 9 students.' They’re now saying, 'This is not okay.'”

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But Zwarych says the focus can’t only be on bullying. She says the next step is to teach kids how to get help.

“I’m not sure there is enough emphasis in this province on prioritizing those skills,” she said. “We can’t go wrong with a better focus on healthy relationships.”

She likens teaching how to have healthy relationships to any other skill.

“In hockey we wouldn’t just tell them, you know, to go and become a great hockey player. We’d practice it.”

This isn’t the first suicide in Saskatchewan this fall that has made headlines. The death of Todd Loik reached national attention when the 15-year-old took his life at the beginning of September.

Although teen suicides have been in the news Statistics Canada shows that suicides among young people haven’t spiked. But that’s not to say that suicide isn’t a major problem for young people: statistics also show that suicide is the second-leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24.

While there has been much outcry about bullying and problems associated with social media more than 90 per cent of suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric illness, according to Statistics Canada. People like Janice Taylor who fight bullying bring up another issue: what about the so-called bullies after a suicide?

“Yes, they need to take responsibility for their actions. Yes, there are consequences for their actions, but in this instance the consequence for that person is someone’s death,” said Taylor in a recent interview. “Now can you imagine being an adult, growing up knowing that you caused that, that you maybe pushed that person to the edge? I have compassion for that person, because they’re going to have to own that,” said Taylor.

Taylor founded Just Be Friends Kids. Recently she launched her program, A Million Acts of Friendship, in 10 Regina schools. That program promotes friendship and healthy relationships rather than labeling children as bullies or victims.

Zwarych also sees a problem with identifying some children as bullies—especially after a suicide.

“I mean, that would be a life-long torment for a child that no child should suffer,” said Zwarych. “I think that we have to continue to give our children tools and skills to maneuver their relationships.”

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