If you need support right now: call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. LGBTQ+ young people can also contact The Trevor Project by calling 1-866-488-7386, texting START to 678-678, or using online chat.
there is a version of suicide-prevention messaging that stays safely abstract: a ribbon, a statistic, a phone number, a sentence about checking on your friends. all useful. all very easy to nod at and keep scrolling.
then there is the version where the people telling you to pay attention live down the road.
WSFA spoke with two Montgomery women this week about the losses that pushed them into suicide-prevention advocacy. Angela Jackson described the shame and isolation that followed a suicide in her family. Monique Davis talked about her son, Jamari Terrell Williams, who died in 2017 at age 10 after being bullied.
Jamari loved to dance. Davis told WSFA that classmates treated him as different because of it, and that difference became a target.
that detail lands hard because “different” is one of those words adults can make sound harmless after the fact. kids know exactly how it gets weaponized.
“different” should not become a warning label
yesterday i wrote about why queer and trans kids deserve to grow old. this is not the same story, and i do not want to flatten Jamari’s life into an identity the reporting does not give him.
but there is an obvious point of contact: children who get marked as different are often asked to absorb an astonishing amount of cruelty while the adults around them debate whether the cruelty technically meets the threshold for intervention.
Jamari’s mother did not leave that debate where she found it. she created the Jamari Terrell Williams Foundation, which works with schools, churches, city officials, and community groups to fight bullying and prevent suicide. Alabama’s student-harassment law was renamed for Jamari in 2018 and expanded protections around bullying, including cyberbullying.
the foundation’s message is wonderfully uncomplicated: it is okay to be different.
the local part matters
WSFA also reports that Alabama loses at least two people to suicide on an average day, and that nearly 840 Alabamians died by suicide in 2024. those numbers are large enough to become scenery if you let them.
the reason local stories matter is that they turn the scenery back into people.
a mother in Montgomery is still saying her son’s name. a city employee is talking openly about grief she once felt ashamed to discuss. a foundation here is still going into schools and churches telling kids that being different is not a problem to solve.
and this Saturday, Montgomery Parks and Recreation is hosting a Suicide Awareness Resource Fair from 4 to 6 p.m., connecting people with counselors, mental-health professionals, information, and community resources.
that is what “check on your people” looks like when it stops being a caption and becomes infrastructure.
call. text. ask the second question. take bullying seriously before it becomes somebody else’s origin story for advocacy.
Resources: Call or text 988 for free, confidential crisis support 24/7. Learn more about the Jamari Terrell Williams Foundation. LGBTQ+ young people can contact The Trevor Project 24/7.
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