LOGAN — Stand for the Silent is an organization that started nearly 15 years ago by a group of high school students in Oklahoma.
This after they heard the story of Kirk and Laura Smalley’s son, Ty Field-Smalley, who at just 11 years-old tragically took his own life after being suspended from school for retaliating against a bully who had bullied Ty for two years.
Kirk Smalley was a guest on KVNU’s For the People program on Monday to promote the organization.
He agreed that bullying and cyber-bullying need to be talked about.
“That’s why Laura and I started doing what we do, we didn’t want another parent or another family to go through the nightmare that we lived. Laura passed away a little over three years ago from a brain aneurysm, and so, I’ve continued our mission and trying to raise awareness and keep it from happening,” he explained.
Smalley said the statistics are literally staggering.
“One out of four children in America right now would actually have a plan on how they would take their own life before they graduate from high school,” Smalley explained.
Smalley said most of the kids who have these thoughts think that they are all alone.
He said when they do presentations before schools, like they will in North Ogden this fall, students can see from those statistics that they have support.