Family and Jason Foundation share testimony as House honors youth suicide-prevention efforts

The Tennessee House on March 18 adopted a resolution recognizing individuals and organizations working to address adolescent mental health, bullying and social-media harms and heard emotional testimony from the family that launched the We Live for Ria movement.

Representative Sparks sponsored the resolution honoring the memory of Rivers (Ria) Kelleher and groups including the Jason Foundation and the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network. Sparks invited Ria’s father, Avery Kelleher, to speak on the House floor.

Avery Kelleher described his daughter’s sudden decline and said social media played a role. “My daughter had no issues that we knew of,” he said, adding that a series of social-media posts preceded her death. Kelleher said he has spoken with hundreds of students in the Winchester area and that “about 40 percent of those kids will raise their hand and say they feel inadequate. They feel like killing themselves.” He called youth suicide “an epidemic” and urged collective action.

Clark Flatt, identified as president of the Jason Foundation, thanked lawmakers for the recognition and credited Tennessee’s legislative work for creating a model other states look to for suicide awareness and prevention. “We are now a template in the nation,” Flatt said, noting the foundation’s 28 years of work.

The resolution text, read on the floor, cited rising rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide—particularly among adolescent girls—and named local and national organizations and the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for their role in prevention and coordination.

The session closed the recognition with an invitation for a group photo and bipartisan acknowledgments; no formal policy or funding action was taken during the recognition segment. The House proceeded to other calendar business after the presentations.