Youth ambassadors help prevent suicide, sextortion among peers

HARRISVILLE, New York (WWNY) - Preventing teen suicides and sextortion. That’s the goal of a St. Lawrence County youth ambassador program.

Meet Cole Siebles and Joanie Shaw. Shaw is a senior at Harrisville High School and Siebles just graduated from Gouverneur. These two teens are part of a St. Lawrence county-wide effort to raise awareness about teen suicide and sextortion.

“We want to try our best to reach every area of the county to make sure our message is heard,” said Siebles.

The St. Lawrence County Youth Bureau has ambassadors in 13 schools who give presentations, raise awareness about teen suicide, and encourage other students to reach out to them if they are feeling depressed.

“A lot of the times teens don’t go to their parents for anything, or teens don’t go to people who are older than them for anything. They go to us,” said Shaw.

The youth ambassador program is in response to two St. Lawrence county teens, Shylynn Dixon and Riley Basford, dying by suicide in 2021.

Both were victims of online sextortion. That’s when scammers contact people on social media, ask for explicit pictures and hold them for ransom.

The youth bureau director says the ambassadors are trained to handle the difficult conversations and lead their peers to the proper adults.

“They have the St. Lawrence County reach-out phone numbers as well as the national suicide hotline numbers programmed in their cell phones,” said Alexa Backus Chase.

The youth ambassadors say teen suicide and sextortion are too important of a topic to ignore any longer.

“This is something that we feel means a lot to us specifically given what our community has been through,” said Siebles.

“You see teens who think they’re not good enough, or that they’re never going to be anything. And, I feel like it’s wrong for them to feel that way, and I feel like no one should ever feel like that way,” said Shaw.

Backus Chase says the program has already made a difference because kids have sought ambassadors’ help - a step in the right direction to ending teen suicide.

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