Before St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 decided to hold a summit at the end of the last school year to discuss suicide-prevention programs, things were different.

The summit was launched in response to six suicides within the district in seven years, including the April suicide of a 17-year-old St. Charles East High School junior.

Courtney Doyle, a senior at St. Charles East, lost one of her closest friends, Hilary Waltmire, to suicide about two years ago. Waltmire was 16 at the time.

“When it happened to me, I felt like it was never going to get better,” Doyle said. “Like I was always going to be upset about it. ... They barely had anything at school.”

Doyle said she mostly went to friends, family and an outside counselor for help with her issues.

“My friends helped,” Doyle said. “But most of my friends are guys. Hilary was really my only good girlfriend. It was hard. (The guys) got over it faster than I did.”

When Doyle saw her opportunity to make a mark with the suicide summit, she took full advantage. Doyle, along with Stacy Anderson, the assistant director of prevention and parent services with District 303, helped start the Yellow Ribbon Club.

“The purpose of the Yellow Ribbon Club is for the kids to come together who want to ... raise awareness for suicide prevention,” Anderson said.

She said the club is a good way to educate kids and have them educate others about suicide prevention issues, things like where they can go to get help, who they can call and what warning signs to watch for in their friends.

“I think the community as a whole is in a different place,” Anderson said. “Having that suicide prevention summit, it was a lot of things, but overall it was a relief. It was a place where people could come and learn together, talk together and problem-solve together. ... It really cut across the fabric of the community.”

The plan that resulted from the summit was revealed June 10. The action plan focused on providing more information to students, parents, staff and the community and was drawn from input given by experts and members of the community at three previous meetings.

As a first step, students’ ID cards now provide a list of contact information for school and community resources and phone numbers for national suicide and depression hot lines, based on a suggestion Doyle made during the meetings.

“They’ve definitely improved,” Doyle said. “It’s a big difference from when it happened two years ago. They kind of hushed it when it happened (then).”

Anderson said they eventually want to add to the program with student support groups and by getting more students involved.

Ellen Bailey-Comstock, mother of Caitlyn Rose Bailey, a 17-year-old St. Charles East student who committed suicide in 2005, said the school’s efforts are “a good first step.”

“Since my daughter died four years ago, it was unspoken,” Bailey-Comstock said. “You couldn’t talk about it and couldn’t show your feelings. You couldn’t say the word suicide. ... For them to even bring it out I think is huge.”

Bailey-Comstock said she lives with the memory of what happened to her daughter every day, and believes bringing the subject out in the open can result in nothing but good things.

“There’s a lot of shame that goes with it,” she said. “Now I can talk about it. There’s been five other suicides since my daughter.”

Superintendent Don Schlomann said he hopes the district’s prevention efforts are enough to make a difference and get through to students.

“You work really hard at it and hope you’re getting to those needs (of students),” Schlomann said.

“One of the things we have been able to do is ask ‘Is that something you’re thinking about?’ I think in the past, we would have not done that. But now ... we’re able to do that in a calm matter, ask them that question, and if the response is positive, we know the resources (to use).”