Principal Responds To Student's Suicide. The Result Is Powerful.

A mental health illness isn’t as obvious as a physical ailment, but that doesn’t make it any less serious and can mean it’s much more dangerous.

That’s the message St. Gregory the Great Academy Principal Jason Briggs delivered to his school in a powerful letter that was shared online following the death of Nick Pratico, a college freshman whose body was found across the street from Mercer County Community College earlier this week.

Pratico’s pastor, Rev. Jason Parzynski, said Pratico’s family was stunned after learning he had taken his own life.

Briggs opens his letter by saying he didn’t know Pratico or his family, but he does know “18 year old young men do not simply walk away into the woods and pass away of natural causes.”

“I never met Nick Pratico, nor any member of his family, and I only know what has been reported in the news since the day he disappeared,” Briggs wrote. “As a result, I have absolutely no insight as to what was on this young man’s mind when he disappeared. What seems apparent, however, is that whatever was on his mind caused him to decide to disappear and that he was overwhelmed by something.”

He went on to say that certain people’s brains are predisposed to certain mental states, mental illnesses and afflictions are still often shrouded in secrecy and shame, and those who deal with such afflictions are often stigmatized.

He criticized our culture for making jokes about schizophrenia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and bipolar disorder.

“If a person was to get his head shaved at the barber and then come to work announcing that he ‘got a cancer cut,’ or a person’s tanning session went awry and a co-worker said she looked like she has hepatitis, we would rightly consider such labels horrendous,” Briggs wrote. “Why the dichotomy between physical and mental afflictions?”

He continues by saying things that happen in the home that endanger mental health never see the light of day, comparing it to other reasons a student might be distracted when they come to school.

“We get messages from home that Tina could not complete her homework because she forgot her book, or that Jeremy had a headache last night,” Briggs wrote. “To my knowledge, we have never received a note stating that Todd could not complete an assignment because his mother was having an episode of threatening self-harm. Do you really think that something like this never happens? Why do we feel perfectly fine in reporting a urinary tract infection, but not an episode of extreme depression?”

Briggs said it is important to look for signs of mental illness and not hide from the possibility that our children might be suffering from a deep rooted problem we might not be able to see.

He pointed to the fact that after a suicide, close friends and family say the deceased had everything going for them.

“That is, ‘How could she be driven to suicide when she was a three-sport athlete in high school, just graduated from an elite college, and had a fine fiancé?’ The reality is that mental illnesses and afflictions cross socio-economic, racial, cultural, and all other types of barriers,” he wrote.

He went on to say he suffers from some of the mental afflictions he mentioned in his letter, and said it is important to recognize all people are created equally.

“We must work to recognize that God created us all as we are, including any mental illnesses and afflictions that we deal with, for reasons that He alone knows,” Briggs wrote. “Considerable inroads can be made with acceptance, treatment, and vigilance. People who deal with mental illnesses and afflictions are just as valuable, productive, and important as everyone else.

“My most sincere condolences to the family of Nick Pratico as well as to all who love him, and to all families who deal with untimely and tragic losses. To every person and family who deals with the reality of mental illnesses and afflictions on a daily basis, remember, you are not alone.”

To read the full letter, click here.

Image via Shutterstock