The Denver Gazette

Tay Anderson shamelessly plays the suicide card

JIMMY SENGENBERGER Jimmy Sengenberger is host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts “Jimmy at the Crossroads,” a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.

For over seven years, I was treated for clinical depression and anxiety. I saw a therapist and a psychiatrist, who prescribed antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. Thanks to proactive treatment, I am now celebrating three years this month since my psychiatrist agreed I could get off my meds.

Having started taking medication in June 2011, this was a momentous achievement. As with so many people, though, I kept my struggles with depression and anxiety to myself. It wasn’t until November 2020 that I finally went public about my battle with depression.

I wrote in a column about how, on December 31, 2013, I almost jumped off a downtown Denver parking garage. I recounted what led up to that moment and how I ended up calling my parents. I was taken to Denver Health by police car and placed in an overnight mental health hold.

This intense, life-shaping experience set me on a course for better treatment that ultimately led to where I’m fortunate to be now. My time working through such trials and tribulations taught me so much — including how significant mental health really is.

The youth mental health crisis has been rising for years. State data reveals that Colorado kids ages 10-19 who died by suicide rose more than 200% from 2007 to 2020. Serious suicide ideation charted in at 17.5% of students in 2019. Then, 2020 hit. Responding to COVID-19, government forced kids out of schools, into remote learning and isolated from the social occasions that dramatically shape a child’s life. The mental health crisis was exacerbated.

According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, emergency room visits skyrocketed 90% this April compared with April 2019; suicide attempts topped the list of causes. An average day saw 24 kids on the waitlist for inpatient psychiatric beds. Things became so acute that the hospital declared a pediatric “mental health state of emergency” in May.

The mental health crisis is very real, especially among youth but also with adults. Our society must dismantle the stigma surrounding clinical depression, anxiety and other serious mental health concerns. Policy makers must work collaboratively to address this crisis in more effective ways.

Likewise, school boards across the state are grappling with the rise in depression, anxiety and suicide among students. It is imperative that districts take this issue very seriously and work diligently to address it.

At the same time, we cannot allow anyone to trivialize suicide and depression. Most especially, no elected official should ever weaponize suicide, depression and mental health for political advantage.

Unfortunately, that’s what Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson has done. Anderson was censured by his colleagues last Friday for “behavior unbecoming a board member,” including “flirtatious” and “coercive” messages exchanged with minor girls. While the censure vote was woefully inadequate (see: last Friday’s column, “Only a censure – for a serial predator?”), it was expected.

What was shocking was Anderson’s self-focus and manipulation of a genuine mental health crisis. Just before the vote condemning his behavior — flirting with underage girls and intimidating witnesses, as substantiated in DPS’s investigation report last week — Anderson had his chance to speak.

He began reading off the suicide hotline before comparing himself to Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955 after being falsely accused of rape. Throughout his remarks, Anderson kept suggesting the investigation and any calls for his censure or resignation are racist, baseless and responsible for his own mental health issues.

Not once did he admit to wrongdoing. At most Anderson “acknowledged [his] mistake” in messaging with a 16-year-old DPS student before he “learned their age” and “immediately ceased communications.” He blamed the “harm this entire controversy has caused” — that is, the investigation and coverage — for anything that’s gone wrong, not himself for his own actions.

This Tuesday, Anderson deleted his official @DirectorTay Twitter (public record) and his official Facebook page and switched his unofficial @ TayAndersonCO Twitter and Instagram to “Protected” or “Private.”

“I’m taking some time off of social media,” Anderson tweeted Tuesday. “I’ve locked down or deactivated most of my public accounts. I have to prioritize my mental health and spend time with my son. This has been a lot, but I’m ready to rebuild.”

In July, Anderson said he “began contemplating taking [his] own life” on May 29. “Finally, after almost taking my own life, I have a commitment of doing everything in my power to strengthen our suicide prevention tools.”

As I wrote at the time, “If it’s true Anderson had suicidal thoughts, I understand and feel bad. However, when you’re on a school board — whereby children’s safety is your responsibility — you don’t get to make it about yourself. Yet Anderson managed to do exactly that.”

By repeatedly playing the mental health and suicide cards, Tay Anderson brazenly attempts to deflect any criticism or consequences for his actions. Depression and suicidal ideation are very real for so many, including vulnerable students. Rather than owning up to his misconduct and resigning his position, Anderson manipulates the public’s emotions, abusively generates sympathy for himself and diverts attention from the needs and concerns of DPS children. Unfortunately, his board colleagues refuse to call him out on it — perhaps because Anderson’s deflection strategy is working.

Depression and suicide are tragically rampant among Denver’s youth. Solving a genuine mental health crisis requires sincerity and action. Political gamesmanship uniquely harms this effort.

Rather than owning up to his misconduct and resigning his position, Anderson manipulates the public’s emotions, abusively generates sympathy for himself and diverts attention from the needs and concerns of DPS children.

OP/ED

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2021-09-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281913071258673

The Gazette, Colorado Springs