When Mari Hernandez woke up on May 15, 2018, she immediately knew her son was gone. Andrew, the second youngest of her four children, had taken his own life. Known as the “Big Friendly Giant” by his friends, Andrew was just weeks away from graduating Santa Barbara High School.
He had everything to live for. He was surrounded by family and friends who loved him, and he had dreams for his future. Anyone who knew Andrew pinned him as the “old soul” type who was upbeat and kind. Mari, along with everyone else in her son’s life, was floored at Andrew’s decision to drown himself off of Stearns Wharf.

But oftentimes, those who take their own lives fit that very description ​— ​happy, at least outwardly. Andrew’s suicide was one in a string of teen suicides in Santa Barbara County in recent years. Suicides and suicide attempts in the county peaked in 2016, when 62 of the attempts were by middle and high schoolers. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States.

Frann Wageneck, the assistant superintendent of Student Services at the Santa Barbara Unified School District, set out to conquer the silent beast. Shedding the stigma around depression by integrating social-emotional learning into schools became her mission. The number of teen suicide attempts began to drop once the district rolled out the Signs of Suicide (SOS) Program in 2018, a curriculum Wageneck implemented for middle and high schoolers that focuses on suicide awareness and skills to deal with depression and recognize the signs in others.