Mental Health: Juvenile Baker Act reports reveal children who have lost hope

Note to our readers: Included in this installment of The Ledger's series on mental illness is the use of language and imagery some may find to be disturbing or graphic in nature.

LAKELAND — The Ledger reviewed multiple randomly selected Baker Act reports on juveniles, provided by the Lakeland Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and found stories of hopelessness among area teens.

All student names were redacted from the reports. While Lakeland Police reports do not include any follow-ups with students, it is standard practice for Polk County deputies or school resource officers to check in with any Baker Acted person, juvenile or adult.

April 2021 - Lakeland Police and Lakeland High School Resource Officer Max Blackburn responded to a girl making suicidal statements.

She "pulled up her hoody jacket sleeves, revealing she had multiple cuts that (went) up her forearm.," Blackburn wrote in a report.

Blackburn called Peace River Center, a local treatment facility, which sent a a crisis team member to the school. They evaluated the girl and took her to Peace River Center on Lake Avenue for further evaluation.

February 2021 - A Lakeland High School student made suicidal statements and a Peace River Center crisis team member responded.

The boy stated "he had voices in his head telling him to hurt himself and others, and that the voice in his head" has a name, which was removed from the report.

The boy, who had been diagnosed with a mental illness and was on medication, said "when he went home at the end of the school day, he intended to harm himself by cutting and slashing."

He was taken to Peace River Center.

February 2021 - The Lake Gibson High School school resource officer was contacted by a guidance counselor and Peace River Center counselor Ted Mims about a student making suicidal comments.

The student "made the comment that he wanted to commit suicide by hanging, and that his family aggravate him so much he has thought about hurting them."

The evaluation team determined that he was a high risk.

"He stated that he has been depressed recently because he feels that he does not have anybody to talk with," a Polk County Sheriff's Office report states, adding that he and his family all work at a business. "He feels that all he does is work and does not have any time for himself...He stated that his Dad always gets on him for 'messing up' while working. He stated that his mom always sides with his Dad. He feels that he is a 'pest' when it comes to his family."

He was taken to Peace River Center for evaluation.

A follow up 11 days later shows that the boy told the SRO that he was "feeling better about himself and appeared to be in good spirits."

February 2021 - A Frostproof Middle-High School student told her mental health counselor, Carolyn Wright, that she feels "over-pressured at home...and has to watch her younger siblings and focus on schoolwork. As a result, (she) feels that she does not want to live any longer...(she) has been feeling depressed for the last few weeks about her unchanging living situation at home."

She was taken to Peace River Crisis Stabilization Unit.

The SRO followed up with the girl a week later, who told the SRO that "she benefitted from Peace River services and felt that the mental health evaluation helped her."

She was prescribed Zoloft to take once a day.

The deputy checked in with the girl at least once a month.

November 2020 - A boy left the Lakeland High School campus and headed south to Lake Hollingsworth after making threats about killing people.

Blackburn and fellow School Resource Officer Dagon Leach took a golf cart and found him sitting on the sidewalk by the lake.

"I then began to handcuff him without incident," Leach wrote in a report. "He asked why he was being handcuffed, so I told him because he talked about killing/shooting people. He quickly said he didn't say anything about shooting people."

A search of his backpack did not turn up any weapons, but he then became loud and angry, telling Leach, "This world sucks and everyone on the planet should die because they are mean."

Leach determined that his statements and "his actions of leaving the school showed without further mental health treatment, he would be a harm to himself or others."

He was Baker Acted.

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November 2020 - Camila Febres, a therapist for Peace River Center, met with a Polk County Sheriff's Deputy at George Jenkins High School about one of her patients, who had been Baker Acted two months earlier and had been inpatient at Peace River for depression and anxiety. The girl had attempted suicide in the past by overdosing.

The girl told Febres "that yesterday she was thinking of jumping off the upstairs balcony at school."

The resource officer met with the girl, who said "she has thoughts of suicide daily. She said she doesn't have a specific plan, but she did think of jumping off the second story of the school. She said she thinks she needs to go back to Peace River Center because she thinks she may act on her thoughts of suicide."

Following Thanksgiving break, the resource officer checked on the girl by calling her mother. Her mother said she was still at Peace River and they were looking for an in-patient treatment program.

October 2020 - A young man left his backpack and threw his phone in the garbage, telling a friend, "Where I'm going, I won't need any of these."

Just after 8 a.m., he left the Lakeland High School campus and walked to Bryant Stadium. He saw the parking garages at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center and walked to the top floor of one of the garages. He climbed onto a ledge, but realized that jumping wouldn't solve any of his issues.

He walked back to campus, where Lakeland Police and School Resource Officer Max Blackburn, school administrators and a Polk County Sheriff's bloodhound were looking for him because he was known to be depressed and could self harm.

He was Baker Acted and Blackburn said he is doing better now.

October 2020 - A person with custody of a young man told Lakeland High SRO Leach that he believed the boy was using marijuana and Xanax.

Leach said the boy had slurred speech and was unsteady on his feet

"He said he didn't have any friends," Leach wrote in a report. "That struck me as odd, like he was lonely."

As Leach spoke with him, the boy stood up and tried to leave the office. Leach told him multiple times to sit down, but the boy continued to try to open the door to leave. Leach put him back in his seat, but the boy stood up, tensed his body and balled his hand into a fist. Leach put him up against a wall and handcuffed him.

The boy finally explained that he "has been very depressed lately" and that "people were going to kill him about his drug involvement...(He) has been asking (redacted) to get him counseling, but (redacted) told me that Peace River did not have any immediate openings."

The boy was placed in involuntary evaluation.

Ledger reporter Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at kmoore@theledger.com or 863-802-7514. Follow her on Twitter at @KMooreTheLedger.

To get help

Polk County's Peace River Center offers a 24-Hour Emotional Support and Crisis Line: 863-519-3744 or toll-free at 800-627-5906

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Mental Health: Juvenile Baker Act reports reveal children who have lost hope