St. Xavier High School debuts suicide hotline bench promoting mental health

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — If you went to St. Xavier’s basketball game Friday night, you were likely met by eight booths of mental health resources.

“Our boys have really run with this initiative and they have really made mental health matter in this school,” said Emmy Waterkotte, a St. Xavier High School employee.

That initiative is the school’s partnership with Sources of Strength, an organization that teaches kids how to talk about mental health.

“One of the things we do is kind of an upstream approach. We want to get them to talk about issues they’re having before we come into crisis mode, and that’s what Sources of Strength is all about,” Waterkotte said.

Watch our interviews with the students and staff below:

St. Xavier High School debuts suicide hotline bench promoting mental health

St. Xavier junior Sabian Swan is one of the 70-plus students who are members of Sources of Strength.

“In daily life, we’re really talking to students, we’re telling them about Sources of Strength,” Swan said. “We’re just asking them if they’re OK … if you’re not, do you want to talk to me? Do you need me to listen to you?”

We asked Swan what solutions he has seen through Sources of Strength with his peers.

“I mean the solutions that I’ve seen … everyone feels more open,” Swan said.

On Friday night, they debuted a bench at the school that shares the suicide hotline number. The bench will stay on campus as a physical reminder that help is available.

The bench was donated by the nonprofit Josh’s Benches for Awareness, started by parents who lost their son, Joshua Nadelbach, to suicide.

“They didn’t know he was struggling, they had no idea,” Waterkotte said. “So what they wanted to do was make sure people knew where to turn.”

Waterkotte said there’s always a reason to talk about mental health, and she hopes through these efforts it becomes destigmatized.

“There’s someone in your life who’s gonna help you, someone in your life who loves you, someone in your life who cares for you,” said Swan.