LESTER PRAIRIE, Minn. — The notes on the white board pertain to WWII, but the topic of the day in this Lester Prairie High School history classroom is the battle within.
“That is our crisis situation,” the instructor tells her students. “A friend is having thoughts of suicide.”
This spring, every Lester Prairie 10th grader is learning how to spot the signs of a classmate in a mental health crisis.
The classes are sponsored by a Minnesota-based nonprofit called 2B Continued.
The organization’s name was inspired by Shelly Teubert’s nickname.
“She was Teuby,” Tammy Diehn, Shelly’s older sister says.
But what does Shelly have to do with those kids in that classroom at her old high school?
“She died by suicide on January 21st, 2017,” Tammy says.
The irony of her sister's death has not been lost on Tammy. Shelly was a mental health nurse.
“She cared for a lot of people and saved a lot of lives,” Shelly’s sister says.
Shelly’s passing wasn't the first time Tammy's family had been touched by suicide.
“My husband lost his brother to suicide in 1986,” Tammy says.
So, within months of her sister’s death – when Tammy brought in a speaker on suicide and packed a Lester Prairie church – she figured her community was ready to grow the conversation.
“Tammy Diehn contacted me in June of 2021,” Melissa Radeke, Lester Prairie’s superintendent of schools says.
Melissa agreed to let her students be part of a pilot program.
“We really felt this was an important step to take,” she says.
A first step for Lester Prairie, but Tammy was just getting started.
Now, in its third year, 2B Continued has four instructors working in 16 central Minnesota High Schools, teaching a curriculum written by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
“Sixteen schools and there's already a waiting list for next year,” instructor Melissa Berget says, after finishing her teaching at Lester Prairie.
This spring, Sibley East High School in Arlington became the first to certify every 10th, 11th, and 12th grader in mental health first aid.
“I think it put a light on a dark situation that no one was ready to talk about,” sophomore Treyton Ender says. “But we just dove right in.”
His classmate Abi Montoya says the instruction has made her look more carefully at the emotional state of students around her, “people maybe I’m not even friends with."
Could the training save a life?
“Most definitely,” sophomore Ady Beneke says.
To hear Sibley East English teacher Carrie Bartlette, the training already has.
Last year, the veteran teacher was struggling with her own mental wellbeing.
One day she found the emotional weight too heavy to bear and notified her principal she had to leave the school.
“My plan was to end my life that day,” Carrie says.
Then, Carrie remembered listening in, as the 2B Continued instructor taught in her classroom.
“And then, that day, I ended up going to therapy,” Carrie says. “Without the curriculum things would be very different for my family - my work family, and my home family.”
Seated at a kitchen island at her home, Tammy Diehn points to Shelly in a favorite photo.
“How I remember her,” she says. “Just smiling.”
Tammy has made sure her kid sister isn’t just a memory in family pictures.
She likes to think she’s still counseling, now in classrooms.
And still saving lives.
“I think she'd be very proud,” Tammy says as tears well up in her eyes. “Yep, she'd be happy.”
If you or someone you know is facing a mental health crisis, there is help available from the following resources:
Crisis Text Line – text “MN” to 741741 (standard data and text rates apply)
Crisis Phone Number in your Minnesota county
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, Talk to Someone Now
Throughout Minnesota call **CRISIS (**274747)
The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386
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