Her grandson killed himself. Then his school left him out of the yearbook
By Lisa Gutierrez
Minnesota seventh-grader Kaiden Kauffman killed himself at home in September, say family members who are angry the Isanti Middle School student was left out of his yearbook. The school district apologized, saying it was not intentional.
Twitter
Dawn Kauffman-Mace had to call a friend when she found something missing from her grandson's middle-school yearbook last week.
She didn't see his picture, she told ABC 5 in Minneapolis. She said the friend told her she didn't see Kaiden's photo in her copy of the yearbook, either.
Twelve-year-old Kaiden, Kauffman-Mace told the TV station and other Minneapolis media outlets, killed himself in September shortly after the beginning of the school year. He was a seventh-grader at Isanti Middle School.
“We are really angry,” Kauffman-Mace told The Minneapolis Star Tribune. "It’s hurtful. We would have hoped there would have been a photo. His friends could have written notes. That would have been a lovely keepsake.
"Not to even mention his name is unacceptable.”
We love you buddy keep draining those 3’s and Hookin into the big ones. Fly high Kaiden Kauffman 05-17 gone but never forgotten pic.twitter.com/Fb5db6001P
Kaiden died at home on Sept. 22, his obituary said. His grandparents raised him. "Kaiden enjoyed many things including video games, music, fishing, basketball, football, BMX, hunting, and spending time with family," his obituary said..
"Kaiden was a boy who had a compassionate heart and felt every emotion deeply. He loved his family more than they probably knew. He battled many mental health issues throughout his life. His family did their best to walk beside him and support him in his journey. Unfortunately it was a battle lost."
School officials have apologized to his family and say Kaiden was not intentionally left out of the yearbook.
“We feel badly and sympathize with the family and the grief they are going through,” Shawna Carpentier, a spokeswoman for Cambridge-Isanti Schools, told the Star Tribune. “We wished it didn’t happen.”
She told the newspaper that yearbooks are put together using class lists and that the district will review that process to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.
Kauffman-Mace told ABC 5 the school's principal told her "it was an oversight. I felt as if Kaiden's existence was erased, and Kaiden mattered."
School districts "walk a fine line when a student takes his/her own life, often saying nothing, acknowledging little in the belief that to talk about a student’s suicide leads to others," Minnesota Public Radio blogger Bob Collins wrote about the incident.
"It’s one of the reasons why the fact suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people is a fact that surprises so many people.
"By the end of a school year, the dead student has often been forgotten."
Kaiden's aunt, Sarah Erickson, told the Star Tribune that the school is missing an opportunity to use Kaiden's death to talk about mental illness.
“Suicide is something nobody wants to talk about,” Erickson said. “You can’t just erase a kid and expect to prevent future suicides. Nothing changes unless it is talked about. The school failed.”
School officials told ABC 5 and the Star Tribune they are working with the family to fix what's happened, including adding a possible tribute in next year's yearbook.
But that's too late, his grandmother told ABC 5, because her grandson died this school year.
"To be able to have that as a treasure to hold on to, that would have been really nice," she told the TV station. "So I felt robbed."
While the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota cautioned against having any kind of memorial at the school for fear of copycat behavior, ABC 5 reported, the group told the TV station that Kaiden's photo should have been in the yearbook.
A new mental health awareness group was set up at Kaiden's school last year, Carpentier told the Star Tribune.
“We hope students and families reach out to get that support,” she told the newspaper.
