Family is not blood, it’s about Relationships.

Welcome to our family.

Our family is very serious about preventing this from every happening in another family. In our efforts to promote awareness, realistic solutions, and education, we are brutally transparent about what happened with Jack. Suicide is a brutally topic, and one that in the past has been stigmatized. The more we research the issues around the escalation mental health related issues with our youth, teens and young adults, the more apparent the stigma is NOT around knowing it’s an issue, but rather the WORK that is required to get to “not one more.” There are ways to change course and they are well studied. So why didn’t WE know? “Systemic lack of Transparency, Integrity, and Accountability.”

We will never apologize for the brutal truth; it could save your child’s life.

We lost our battle for Jack’s life on January 7th, 2020, just 56 days after his 13th birthday. Jack had no history; signs of depression or suicidal ideation, no had he ever intentionally hurt himself.  This makes the “complexity of Adolescent Suicide” harder to prevent, get help or solve. Our research has revealed that suicide is the leading cause of death for 13 & 14 year old Adolescents. About 1/3rd display no obvious or statistical indicators that cause for pause or concern. As a Parent that is terrifying and difficult to wrap your head around.

We had the opportunity to read through the forensics provided (by Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department) from Jack’s electronics, specifically social media. His public and private responses to toxic arguments and other communications exposed only one altercation, and it was not even recent. It did reveal that Jack had a healthy maturity for deescalating. Jack’s response, shrugging it off and give them the disinterested in the ignorance unprovoked confrontation. It also appeared to be irritating to those who wished to be ugly or aggressive with him. In the early days of investigation, there where multiple rumors about bullying; if there was it was not in his online interactions.

Why Operation: Jack’s Village?

In the first few weeks following Jack’s death, we received several alarming letters from other kids, that gave us pause and concern. Jack had taken on the responsibility of defending or de-escalating volatile situations.  Being there for kids who truly felt “Jack’s vibe protected them.”  there is a void in our culture; a place we all have to step into.  We cannot focus on what somebody else should be doing, why we didn’t know what was affecting Jack’s brain health, how schools are failing our students and teachers. We must educate ourselves on brain health, build those local relationships ourselves, and redirect our kids away from any environment that may be toxic for them.

THE RESEARCH - Any of these kids can be at Risk of suicide and we are “combat ineffective.”

(Check out our research on “Culture deficiency” root cause and “Culture overwhelm” catalyst.)

WE if we are going to prevent such tragedy, we are the hope of research, finding EVIDENCE BASED solutions, and building community that actively comes together to help Teens in our communities. Teen Suicide is complex, and we are “combat ineffective!” If you are seeing “warning signs” DON’T LEAVE THEM ALONE. No child has every died by suicide in front of a parent. And yes, it can happen in your family and to your child. Our culture did not escalate to suicide as the leading cause of death for 13- & 14-year-olds, because we were all doing our part.

We can tell you, that will be that biggest regret of your life will be when you have to bury your child. It is important manage your expectations of what the world is like today. The systems in place are overwhelmed, out of their own level of expertise, and constantly in reaction mode. Manage your expectations of what level of support your child is receiving outside of your purview.

WHY WE ARE HERE

The systems in place are overwhelmed, out of their own level of expertise, and constantly in reaction mode. We should manage our own expectations on the level of support any child is receiving within broken systems.  Operation Jack’s Village is stepping out in collaboration with companies and organizations with mission overlap to combat the lack of transparency, public understanding, and accountability needed to measure true results.

Help us help you.

On this website you will find a continuous update of resources and contacts.   Communities need to start looking at all levels of help and pool our efforts, resources, get every mind involved in creative problem-solving. In a world of division, we want to be a source of unity, and effective truth. When we lost Jack, many people asked what they could do to help us. Many people wanted to send a gift card or make a donation, individuals and groups. We are using every penny of the memorial donation received, to create a local program, Operation: Jack’s Village. This is our answer to preventing another heart wrenching tragedy and for a fitting memorial to the spirit of Jack’s short life.