Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams was joined by elected officials, students, advocates, educators, and policymakers at Borough Hall to call for new, youth-led solutions after a startling report revealed a growing suicide crisis among Black youth, particularly Black girls. Borough President Adams, along with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Medgar Evers College President Rudy Crew, New York City Department of Education’s (DOE’s) Brooklyn North Superintendent Karen Watts and Brooklyn South Superintendent Barbara Freeman, and students called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign a bill passed by the legislature in the most recent legislative session, S.4467B/A.6740 (Carlucci/Jean-Pierre), to create a State Black Youth Suicide task force to address this issue. Borough President Adams also announced a hack-a-thon led by young people of color focused on improving mental health, with a $20,000 prize from Brooklyn Borough Hall that will be awarded to the person or group with the most innovative idea for a PSA to improve mental health among young people.
At the press conference, students from Bedford Academy High School in Brooklyn, Taziya Reynolds, Patience Jones, Bryanna Bonner, and Lizette Garcia each spoke about the need to break the stigma around talking about mental health for young people of color.
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