Summer has a different texture than the rest of the year.

At least it used to.

Many parents remember mornings that turned into afternoons without a schedule. Bikes disappeared down neighborhood streets until the streetlights came on. Baseball games formed spontaneously. Forts were built. Creeks were explored. Boredom wasn't an emergency; it was often the beginning of creativity.

When a school of just 350 students has nine children seriously consider ending their lives in a single school year, everyone pays attention.

That is exactly what happened at a small charter school in the mountains of northern California. It was a community that had already endured devastating wildfires and the tragic loss of a student in a fatal car accident. The emotional weight was already heavy. Then came an unprecedented number of students expressing suicidal thoughts.

Some kids look fine until they are not.

They are funny at dinner. They seem popular at school. They keep up with assignments, laugh with friends, and appear to be moving through life with a normal amount of teenage moodiness. Then, slowly, something shifts. The light dims. The things that used to bring delight feel dull. The real world begins to feel flat.