Terri’s interview with Kelly Murphy for her Podcast, Impacted by Gun Violence - Hope in the Face of Adversity is now available on Spotify. The interview focuses on the creation of the Patrick Straut Foundation that came out of her grief journey in the loss of Patrick. Check it out at the link. Huge thanks to Kelly for her ongoing work in gun sense advocacy. It was a great to Tell Patrick’s Story in this venue.
—Nathan Reich, 2018 Scholarship Recipient
Only five short years ago, I was standing on the stage at the awards ceremony for the 2017/2018 school year at Wheat Ridge High School. I was one of three recipients of the Patrick Straut Foundation Scholarship that year; disciplined enough to apply for it, fortunate enough to receive it, and similar enough to Patrick to understand why it is so important.
During my senior year at WRHS, I was granted the life-changing opportunity to participate in the GT center in Room 13, then "taught" (other words, such as "guided", "spearheaded", or "ruled" also come to mind) by Eliot Holmes and Lisa Lee. It was here that I had a safe place in the new and unfamiliar world of public education in the US. I had been homeschooled, living overseas in South America, for most of my school years; needless to say, WRHS was a far cry from my previous years of high school. In the sea of "news" and "unfamiliars" and "what the hell is thats", Mama Lee listened and encouraged and counseled me throughout.
Aside from the fact that I grew up in a sheltered home in a third world country (an interesting combination, to be sure!), I was also different from my peers in that I had a girlfriend (insert savage high school burn!). My lovely girlfriend lived in Paraguay, approximately 5,500 miles away (not that I was counting ...) and despite our young age, we were already planning on getting married shortly after I graduated (yes, high school). Mama Lee, the amazing and supportive teacher that she was, permitted students to have lunch in her room. I used this brief time, every day, to call my beloved and talk to her during my short lunch period. Of course, Mama Lee forced me to introduce her and often came to say hello (and, obviously, to tease me about it afterwards). In this and many other small and big ways, Mama Lee, Mr. Holmes, and the GT Center supported me through my year at WRHS.
Today, I am in a very different place than I was on that stage five years ago. I did, in fact, marry the woman of my dreams (I proposed the day after I graduated high school, and we got married exactly one year later). After a tedious and exorbitantly expensive immigration process, I brought her to the US with me, and a little over a year later, our son was born (yes, I was indeed still in college). I graduated a semester early from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Spanish Education K-12, and the Bilingual / Bicultural Endorsement, and the Culturally Linguistically Diverse Endorsement (a mouthful, to be sure). Currently, I am teaching third grade at a bilingual school, specifically Spanish Language Arts and Social Studies and Science in Spanish. I am finding and creating resources in Spanish for my gifted and talented students who are not identified due to biased laws regarding language (gifted students should qualify as gifted regardless of their first language, in my opinion), and I am grateful for the scholarship I received back in 2018 as well as the ongoing friendship and support I have had with Terri Straut and others.
My hope is that many other students are able to stand on that stage at WRHS, receiving the support and encouragement that I received. I also hope that, five years later, they can look back and reflect on how they have grown and changed; as I have. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Terri was invited to submit an opinion piece to The Colorado Sun for Suicide Prevention month. ur kids are returning to school in the midst of not only a lingering pandemic but also a mental health crisis and record gun sales, a potentially deadly mix that we as parents must acknowledge.
This summer, Children’s Hospital Colorado issued its first state of emergency for pediatric mental health in its 113-year history, warning, “Suicide is the leading cause of death for Colorado kids, ages 10+, and is putting more kids in our emergency care than ever before.”
If you’re a parent with guns in your home or your kids visit homes with guns, please consider talking to your children. I wish I had. Read the full article here.
2012 Graduates: Steven, Shane, Richy & Avery with Richy’s Dakota Ridge HS tassel.
Patrick had four very close friends who graduated in 2012. That year my dear friend Jean got an idea to help me through my grief over losing Patrick. She collected a total of $600 from our mutual friends in the Jeffco Association for Gifted Children (JAGC) and gave me the money to provide scholarships.
That $600 was the perfect amount, allowing me to give $150 each to “the boys” as I affectionately call them. We had a big cook out on the deck and I gave them each a graduation card and their checks. I also promised Sam, Avery’s brother who was due to graduate in 2013, that I would do the same for him the next year. A tradition was born. Read the complete blog here: https://patricktaylorstraut.wordpress.com/2021/03/06/where-are-they-now/
The Patrick Straut Foundation Board met on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 to plan for the spring 2021 scholarship season and fundraising events in support of the scholarships. All Board members were present and Lisa Lee, WRHS GT Center teacher joined for a portion of the discussion.
Discussion Topics included:
Checking in—it has been a crazy year for us all.
Current balance in scholarship fund.
Tentative Dates for 2021 Scholarship: May 1, 2021 GT Night, Application Deadline April 10, 2021.
Fund Raising Ideas: FB Fundraiser starts 3/16/2021, Raffle signed Patriot’s jersey or football by Dalton Keene, Chatfield alum., Email campaign to previous donors, WRHS GT teachers to email current Center school parents, and explore fundraisers at local restaurants (try to find an option that would be county wide (Jeffco). All recognize the concerns related to COVID-19 and that they will not subside before fundraising window again this year.
Carrying the work of the William and Mary PA forward. Terri applied to present at NAGC in Aurora this fall. Discussed the spiral model. Ideation patterns of gifted adolescents differ from neuro-typical peers.
On October 23, 2020 Terri shared Patrick’s story in the context of the Psychological Autopsy (PA) conducted by the William and Mary team. The presentation was given at the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented (CAGT). Using the PA published by Dr. Tracy Cross et al., the life and death of Patrick (an 18 year-old student) is examined. New models to predict suicidal ideation are presented. Illuminating how the intensities and over-excitabilities associated with being gifted can be risk or protective factors will help participants recognize similar traits in the gifted individuals with whom they interact. This knowledge will inform participants as they guide gifted individuals across the life span. My hope—never lose another one.
Direct Link: https://www.patrickstrautfoundation.org/cagt-2020-presentation-1
On August 8, 2020 Terri told Patrick’s Story with the benefit of the published Psychological Autopsy for the first time. The presentation incorporates the suicide models explored by the team at William and Mary College. These models provide visual representations, making the concepts more accessible to anyone who may be in a position to help someone struggling with thoughts of suicide. Direct Link to YouTube of the presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfht5fvB3I
The William and Mary School of Education, Center for Gifted Education seeks School Counselors Who Have Experienced Suicide Attempts or Completions in Their Schools. They are seeking participants for a study of suicidal behavior and academic pressure. If you are a school counselor who has had experience in the past 10 years with middle- or high-school aged students who engaged in suicidal behavior, from attempts to completion (not including ideation), we would appreciate your input to an anonymous online survey, which should take approximately 25 minutes.
Please find more information about the research at their website, http://bit.ly/Counselor_Study.
Please share with other counselors. This is important research.
It happened this week. After five years of hard work on behalf of the William & Mary team, the psychological autopsy of Patrick was published. It was actually published online on January 14, 2020 in Roeper Review . It has a very academic title, A Psychological Autopsy of an Intellectually Gifted Student With Attention Deficit Disorder. The first author, Dr. Tracy Cross, has previously shared that he believes this is the best work by his team yet. They have produced four such studies of gifted adolescents (all 4 boys) and Dr. Cross was on the dissertation committee for the author of the only such study of a girl, it is the most recent until this one, published in 2010.
Read the complete blog: https://patricktaylorstraut.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/about-daniel-and-the-study-is-published/
The last holiday newsletter I wrote was in 2010. I was still largely in shock from my grandmother Wyckoff (Meem) passing away after a stroke on Thanksgiving that year. But I was excited about the many accomplishments of my three kids and Patrick and I were launching a photography business, so there was also great anticipation.
After Patrick died, the very thought of a holiday newsletter brought me to tears. I had been so excited when I moved the format from 2 columns to three, in anticipation of traveling to China to adopt Emily in 2002. The idea of deleting a column since there was no news of Patrick was depressing beyond words.
Read the complete blog: https://patricktaylorstraut.wordpress.com/2019/12/22/2019-holiday-newsletter-a-milestone/
17. TREASURED | Do you have any treasured belongings that remind your of your child? What are they and what do they mean to you?
Patrick loved these Adidas shoes. He mostly saved them for special occasions. As I look at pictures of him in the last year or two of his life, he was often wearing them. He special ordered them because he wanted kelly green suede and he had a fairly small foot.
After Patrick’s death Brendan wore these shoes and Patrick’s class ring when he wanted to have his brother close by. Shane wore them a few times too while he was living with us. At some point, we all agreed that the shoes were starting to wear too much and we should save them. I’m not sure for what, but we are saving them.
Read the whole blog at: https://patricktaylorstraut.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/carly-marie-challenge-day-17-treasured/
14. SUPPORT CIRCLES | Share your favourite support networks. It may be a charity or a small friendship group. Share their information for others to find.
This is a topic where I feel I have been quite blessed in my grief journey. I have previously written about My Grief Jouney and the support circles is has included. They have been such a blessing to me. I will repost from the Patrick Straut Foundation website here.
Grief and recovery are important topics. Being in the middle of my own grief journey, and having no prior background or training in counseling, I struggle to bring structure to this topic. What I know for certain is that it has been extremely important for me to process my grief with others who are processing similar loss. This is not true for everyone and I have learned not to impose what worked for me on others. It’s just not helpful. The other thing I know for sure is that my yoga practice has helped to keep me grounded, mindful and grateful on my grief journey. Again, it’s not for everyone, but it has helped me a lot.
Read the whole blog: https://patricktaylorstraut.wordpress.com/2019/10/16/carly-marie-challenge-day-14-support-circles/