About 150 parents and students attended a community forum Wednesday at Plano East Senior High School following the apparent suicides of two students late last month.
"It was somber," said Sally Savino, a mother of three former Plano students, who said she was looking for tips on suicide prevention.
The deaths of the two students on Jan. 31 have left the entire school stunned.
Family members found the body of Ritu Sachdeva inside her Murphy home.
Just a few hours later, police found Hillary Kuizon in a wooded area near Plano's Kimbrough Stadium.
The two were friends.
Both were just 14 years old.
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"The death of any student or any teenager by any means is a tragedy, and this community is reeling from the shock of it," said Vanita Halliburton, of the Grant Halliburton Foundation, a Dallas nonprofit organization that educates people about adolescents' mental health and suicide prevention.
The school's principal said 20 counselors were on hand after the deaths to help students deal with the tragedy.
"We were a very somber campus all of last week," said principal George King. "We're on the mend. We just feel like our community is very anxious to move forward."
It's tough, he said, because adults struggle to explain a tragedy that has no easy answers.
Savino said she believes talking about the subject helps.
"It's a tough conversation and they admitted that," the mother said. "It's tough to bring up suicide with teenagers. But they said you're not putting that thought in anyone's head just by discussing it."
