Booker High student had no pulse after school suicide attempt

SARASOTA, Fla. - Booker High School Students came to school asking ‘why?’

"Just got to keep your head up, make it day by day," said Booker High Student Krystal Davis.

They are not easy questions to answer-- ‘why’ their 17-year-old classmate would try to hang herself in a school bathroom and ‘why’ she's in critical condition at a hospital.

"We got to just take it day by day, and just pray for her and hope everything gets better because you never know what someone's going through," said Booker High Student Venesha Bryant.

Parents like Latrina Williams, who has a 15-year old son here, are encouraging their kids to talk to grief counselors.

"I told him that it's very, very important to talk to parents, and not just parents, find an adult,” said Williams.

Just bringing-up the taboo word, suicide, is a good way to break the ice according to Crisis Center of Tampa Bay's Nina Cillo. She says the teen may have wanted help but didn't get it.

"I think going to the school might be a way of saying, look, I really, really need some help and somebody needs to notice me," she said.

Last year, the crisis center got nearly 1,500 suicide calls at their hotline, more often from males. She says there are clear differences.

"Girls seem more adept at that age at developing some support systems. For boys, they've been socialized to take care of things on their own, not to show emotion and as a result, they're not as comfortable asking for help," said Cillo.

Answering ‘why’ someone would want take their own life is difficult, but Cillo says parents can start by asking their kids to talk.