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Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bradyn Bohn, 15, had big plans. But after hours of being sextorted, he took his own life.
If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741. KRONENWETTER – Luke Bird peeked his head into his stepson Bradyn Bohn's bedroom at about 10:30 p.m. March 4 to say goodnight. He glimpsed a familiar scene: Bohn, 15, on the phone with his girlfriend. The two would FaceTime every night until they both fell asleep. Gusts of wind from a winter storm could be heard, a promising sound for any teenager anticipating a Wednesday morning snow day announcement. Earlier that day, Brittney Bird, Bohn's mother, allowed her son to hang out at her hair salon while she bleached his friend's hair. The boys eagerly plotted their snow-day plans, growing ever likelier with the worsening weather. "They were laughing, joking, no signs at all that anything was amiss," Bird said. In less than 24 hours, she would find her son dead, a note stuck to her husband's computer that read, "Make sure he gets caught. I'm so sorry." He had taken his own life. It didn't make sense to anybody who knew Bohn. He had no history of mental health concerns. He loved being part of his school baseball team, spending the last four summers traveling with his teammates for games. As a wrestler, he would cry after winning matches, an intensity that captured the profound empathy he carried for others. And he loved his little sister, 9-year-old Aurora. "We kept asking ourselves, 'Why?' and 'What happened?' He was fine. He wanted to go skiing," said Bird, 36. "We were going to go to concerts this summer. We had all this stuff planned. We were so confused." Bird can't shake a conversation she had with Bohn in October, after one of her friend's sons died by suicide. They sat in his bedroom, broaching the uncomfortable subject. She wanted Bohn to know he could always talk to her if he was struggling. At the time, the idea of suicide was unfathomable to Bohn, who reassured her, "Mom, I would never do that." Bohn's death, although logic-defying, fits into a disturbing online trend that has been flagged by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for a number of years and is now the fastest-growing cybercrime targeting children in North America. Sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation that involves threatening or blackmailing children, often after tricking them into sending them nude or sexual images. The scammers threaten to go public with their photos if they don't comply with their demands, which sometimes involve money, coercing them into sexual activities or sending additional sexual content. These criminal scammers target all young people, but in 90% of financial sextortion cases, the victims targeted are teenage boys between 14 and 17, according to a June 2024 report from the nonprofit Thorn done in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "These people are targeting kids who have everything to lose." — Brittney Bird "For all the cases I've seen, these kids are athletic and successful and applying to colleges and in relationships," Bird said. "These people are targeting kids who have everything to lose." The number of reports of online enticement, a category that includes sextortion, grew by more than 300% between 2021 and 2023. In 2023 alone, the CyberTipline operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 186,800 reports. By the end of 2024, it had received more than 540,000 reports, about a 190% jump, said Kathryn Rifenbark, director of the CyberTipline. Sextortion cases have led to at least 30 deaths by suicides, according to the tallies done by USA Today's in-depth reporting on the topic. In the first three months of 2025, the Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has already received 103 cybertips related to sextortion, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul told the Journal Sentinel. It's likely that, by the end of 2025, the number of reports will easily outpace the 237 cybertips the task force received in 2024. "Oftentimes, this is occurring in the middle of the night or when the parents are not there, so that child has a lack of support in that moment," Rifenbark said. "The offenders are well-versed in removing support from that child." Sexploitation wasn't a term Bird had heard before she discovered the frightening underworld that ensnared her son. And although she doesn't know the specifics of what happened to Bohn in the hours between March 4 and 5, she and her husband, Luke, are fast learning the general details. Offenders will sometimes exploit young women first before targeting boys like Bohn. The offenders will get young women to send explicit photos using similar blackmailing tactics, Rifenbark said. Other times, the offenders will create synthetic content, often referred to as "deep fakes," from existing profiles or by using AI-generated images. "This is an area where we know AI-generated technologies risk playing an increasing role in the ease and the velocity and the scale at which financial sextortion, grooming and sexual exploitation at large can happen," said Melissa Stroebel, vice president of research and insights at Thorn, which published the June 2024 report. Then, the scammers build fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, which includes sending friend requests to people in the target's social media network to give the appearance of mutual friends. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the three most common social media platforms used to make first contact with children, according to the Thorn report. A message from a pretty young woman pops up, and the fact that she has mutual friends with the target disarms them and creates a false sense of trust. About 65% of the children who engaged with these perpetrators are prompted to move to a secondary platform, sometimes chat messengers with little to no security measures like WhatsApp or Telegram, other times to platforms like Snapchat, Google Chat or iMessage, according to the June report. In Bohn's case, after he was contacted on Facebook, the perpetrator persuaded him to move the conversation to Telegram. Once photos were exchanged, the conversation turned dire. Suddenly, Bohn was told he needed to send money or face major consequences. One of the signature tactics offenders employ is to falsely tell the child they've broken the law by sending nude pics and will be put on a sex offender list if they don't comply with financial demands. Another is to tell them they will share the photos with everyone the child knows, from parents to teachers to friends and girlfriends to college admissions. Part of what makes teenagers feel they can't step away, Stroebel said, is that offenders will message relentlessly, deploying countdowns. If you don't send me this money in 30 seconds, I'm sending these photos to everyone you know. "Your world is so small, so everything that happens is so big, and you can't see that," Bird said. "We recently told Bradyn he would always be better than his biggest mistake. I told him, 'You're going grow up and you're going to f--- up one day, and you're going call me because I want to be there.'" Bohn relented to the demand for money. He sent $300 through a payment platform, but that only intensified the messages. Within hours of endless torment and threats, Bohn was dead. "My son was emotionally and psychologically tortured for hours," Bird said. The days and weeks since Bohn's death have left the greater Wausau community reeling, and Bohn's family is determined to spread awareness of this dangerous form of child exploitation. DC Everest School District, where Bohn was a high school freshman, has also taken up measures to help parents, educators and staff, and students better understand the nefarious nature of these offenders. Bohn's death triggered many hard topics in the tight-knit community, said Erin Jacobson, who serves as the mental health navigator in the DC Everest School District. As the district contends with the complicated grief of Bohn's death, administrators also recognize the need to spread awareness. Casey Nye, the superintendent of DC Everest, has been talking with his team about what conversations are possible, given the fact that Bohn's death is still an active investigation. Nye emphasized that some of the responsibility for talking with students will invariably fall on parents and caregivers. Children need to feel comfortable going to them without fearing they'll get in trouble or be shamed for sending nude photos over the internet. Digital citizenship is already built into school curriculum, Nye said, but it's still a work in progress. Schools initiate conversations with students as early as third grade about their digital footprints, online reputation and digital privacy. Earlier efforts emphasized strangers online, gaming safety, and basics of password and device security. As children get older, the topics they're exposed to also mature. Students learn about the dangers of cyber crimes, sexting and identity theft, among others, in middle and high school. "We do need to be more explicit about emerging risks like sextortion," Nye said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has an online safety education program called NetSmartz, which provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children be safer online. Rifenbark encourages parents and teachers to share these videos and guidelines with students early and often. The DC Everest School District is also planning a free communitywide event Wednesday, April 30, at the Grand Theater, 401 N. Fourth St., Wausau, focused on sextortion, its dangers and prevention. Part of that, Nye said, is normalizing the word "sextortion," so everyone is aware of it and can stand up against it. The Resources Fair starts at 5:30 p.m. and the main program runs from 6 to 8 p.m. It will feature John DeMay, a resident of the Upper Peninsula who lost his 17-year-old son Jordan to sextortion. Bird will introduce him at the event. "The conversation in our community is happening regularly now, which is so important for our kids," Jacobson said. "It's important for our kids that they hear adults talk about it, so that they can talk about it and ask questions about it." The news about Bohn's death shocked Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Weston, who represents District 85, the greater Wausau area. "This was a kid who, in all other ways, was fine. He couldn't bear thinking his parents would be hurt, that all his friends would think of him a certain way," Snyder said. "I hope the message that comes out of this is, first and foremost, this is not your fault. These are evil people committing criminal acts." Stroebel, from Thorn, echoed this point. "The reality is this can happen to anyone, and it doesn't make you a bad kid. It doesn't make you stupid. It makes you human," she said. Snyder has been talking to Luke and Brittney Bird, and with Bohn's father, Parker, who fully supports spreading awareness but requested not to be included in media coverage. Snyder has also been talking with Kaul and the state Department of Justice, which released a resources guide after Bohn's death through the state DOJ's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Snyder is fast-tracking a bill that would put teeth into the penalties behind sextortion. "Having a statute specifically addressing this issue be helpful," Kaul said. "It would give prosecutors an additional tool to use … and would help establish precisely what it is investigators need to look for in these types of cases." Should it pass, the bill would named "Bradyn's Law," in Bohn's memory. "This is a horrible tragedy, but if we can pass this law, then he will be remembered as the person who helped us begin to not let this happen again," Snyder said. When he grew up, Bohn wanted to travel, finding the biggest, most challenging mountains to ski down. He wanted to play sports in college. He wanted to get married, have kids and own huskies. Bird can't stop thinking about the house rule about her children's use of phones. No phones overnight in the bedroom. When Bohn started high school, though, Bird relaxed the rule, believing he would be responsible enough. And Bohn was responsible. He was whip smart, did well in school and had the discipline of an ambitious young athlete. But like all teenagers, Bohn was still a child developing decision-making and impulse control, Bird said. Those elements made him and others like him especially vulnerable to scammers. Rifenbark, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, agrees. Historically, boys are less likely to report because there's been less attention paid to male victims of sexual exploitation. Thorn has been tracking sextortion cases dating back to 2015, Stroebel said. 2021 marked the year North America saw a swift rise in cyber crimes against boys and young men. This is a population, Stroebel said, that generally has higher-risk tendencies and isn't typically included in conversations related to sexual abuse. That's why, for Bird, it's so important for parents to let their children know about these criminal acts. "The whole world is in your kid's bedroom at night when you're asleep," Bird said. "Your kid is going to do stupid stuff, even if you tell them not to. But it can all be fixed. It can always be fixed." If you or someone you know has information on potential child exploitation, you can report it to NCMEC online at or by calling 1-800-843-5678. Reports can also be made through Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO), a 24/7 statewide confidential reporting system run by DOJ's Office of School Safety. Reports can be made online at by calling 1-800-MY-SUSO-1, or by texting 'SUSO' to 738477. Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@ or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sextortion ended Bradyn Bohn's life. Can new Wisconsin laws help?
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fewer friends, outlets and direction: Why boys are dying by suicide at an inordinate pace.
If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741. When Dr. Jeffrey Karst sits down with boys for therapy sessions, he sometimes has to peel back extra layers of behaviors learned over time. There's the veil of stoic indifference, what it means to be a man, and the sense that sharing feelings is a sign of weakness. That hasn't been helped by the recent culture wars dictating the definitions of masculinity, said Karst, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "That can make some boys feel very hopeless about their future if they don't match what is expected of them in our current society," Karst said. "It's really hard for a lot of the boys I talk to to think about what values are important to (them) and what is actually going to be valued in society. They feel very alone." Breaking through to access the child's radical authentic self, as Karst describes it, is increasingly important at a time when young men aged 18 to 24 in Wisconsin are nearly four times more likely to die by suicide than young women in that same age range, according to data published by the state Office of Children's Mental Health Tuesday. Even prior to new adulthood, however, boys between 10 and 17 were more than twice as likely than girls to die by suicide, the factsheet found. Part of the challenge with boys, said Karst, comes down to combatting traditional masculine stereotypes. Another challenge, Karst said, is access to firearms, the most lethal means of suicide. "There's been a few inflection points, including the pandemic, but a lot of these are long-standing challenges," Karst said. While men make up 50% of the U.S. population, research shows that four out of five suicide deaths from 2023 were men. What's more, the youngest generations of men, Gen Z (18-23) and Zillennial (24-30), are reporting the highest levels of emotional distress and suicidal thoughts compared to other generations of men. Surveys also revealed that, compared to men 30 years prior, more than a quarter of young men don't have meaningful social connections. At the same time, most young men feel misunderstood by women. Men also express their emotional distress differently than women. Typically, boys and men present with a more brusque exterior: irritability and anger on one end, withdrawal on the other. In Wisconsin, anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts have increased among high school boys, according to the 2023 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Report. More than a third of high school boys said they were anxious; another quarter reported feeling a persistent sadness or hopelessness. The picture of a traditional male breadwinner and protector of the family has shifted dramatically over the decades. And while redefining those traditions has helped expand narrow ideas of gender and broaden career possibilities for girls and young women, some boys may feel they are at an impasse. For Linda Hall, executive director of the Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health, this comes through as boys and young men not seeing a place for themselves in the future. "We're not looking at boys for those traditional roles anymore, so the question becomes, 'What are we building towards?' and 'Where are we trying to go?'" Hall said. That sense of loss pans out in a few ways. Fewer boys are graduating from college, if they go at all, Hall said. Where Wisconsin women aged 25-34 received their college degrees 42% of the time, just 32% of Wisconsin men in that same age group received theirs, according to the Brookings Institute. It also conjures existential dread, Karst said. For the boys Karst treats, if they are unable to see their value in society, they won't feel value in themselves. That opens the door to other vulnerabilities. "When they don't feel value, when they feel alone, sometimes they're drawn into these fringe groups where misogyny and scapegoating occur, rather than actually just finding support," Karst said. Compounding that, boys and young men typically don't reach out to one another when they're struggling, Karst said. Some of that is the result of not having close connections in the first place. Karst noted that, even 15 years ago, playing video games was a social hobby. Now, most boys play video games with people they know, but they're doing so with headphones on alone in their rooms. If they talk, it tends to be online, which robs young people of seeing the consequences of their words. For example, if you're teasing someone and see them react tearfully, chances are you'll change your tone, Karst said. But missing those basic cues can build into a larger problem. "They're really missing that opportunity to connect with friends on an actual emotional level," Karst said. When one of Hall's sons was struggling in school, he went to a school psychologist. At first, it didn't go well. He didn't open up. Talking about feelings in an office space wasn't comfortable. The psychologist decided to turn the appointment into a walking session. They went outside and walked the perimeter of the school. "That was fundamental. That was life-changing, because he felt a connection to her," Hall said. Later, when he got to high school, he recommended the same psychologist to his other male friends. On another occasion, when Hall suggested a therapist put a basketball hoop in his office, her son felt able to open up because he had another activity he could put some of that tension toward. Hall and Karst both said that when adults, and especially male adults, model healthy behaviors, it can help normalize emotional expressions. That might look like verbalizing your own feelings and asking your son, without judgment, about his feelings. For Karst, modeling is the biggest way to help boys and young men reach out. In-person socializing through hobbies and extracurriculars, can also create a sense of solidarity and bonding. Taking time, more generally, to go outside offers natural serotonin boosts and is really easy to do, Hall said. "Adults really need to see beyond what can present as just disruptive or combative behavior," Karst said. "It can really represent true emotional suffering." Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@ or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In Wisconsin, young men die by suicide at 4 times the rate of girls
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wisconsin autism groups say RFK Jr. wrong on facts, offensive in approach
If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741. As Hugh Davis watched Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deliver his first press conference since becoming the federal health secretary, one statement in particular stunned him: "Autism destroys families." "Instead of destroying our family, my son has enriched my life," said Davis. "I would like life to be easier for him, of course, but I wouldn't change a thing about him." Davis, who serves as the executive director of Wisconsin Family Ties, a nonprofit focused on improving children's mental health outcomes, also was frustrated that the remark was embedded in a string of factual inaccuracies made by the U.S. health secretary during the April 16 press conference. For the topic of his press conference debut, Kennedy chose a new report on autism prevalence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published April 15. The report showed that rates of autism had increased to one in 31 among 8-year-olds across Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring sites, including Wisconsin. Rather than share takeaways from the report, Kennedy strayed from the findings and at times appeared to criticize them. For example, the report concluded that while prevalence has increased from 2020 to 2022, that can reflect differing practices in autism spectrum diagnosis evaluation and identification, as well as the availability and accessibility of services. Kennedy repeatedly bucked the report's conclusion, calling it a "canard," or unfounded rumor, on multiple occasions. And he blamed mainstream media for capitulating to what he called "the myth of epidemic denial." "One of the things we need to move away from today is this ideology that … the autism prevalence increases, the relentless increases, are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition of changing diagnostic criteria," Kennedy said. Instead, Kennedy insisted the uptick was due largely to environmental toxins and not a matter of genetic factors, despite evidence to the contrary on both counts. "Genes do not cause epidemics. It can provide a vulnerability," he said. "You need an environmental toxin." He also claimed that autism is preventable, a statement that contradicts scientific consensus. Overwhelmingly, autism is due to genetics, a May 2016 paper published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry concluded. That conclusion has been widely replicated by researchers. Kennedy's message drew a scathing response, not only from advocacy groups focused on autism awareness, education and better accommodations, but from researchers and scientists who have probed the complex causes of autism for decades. One of the more audacious promises within Kennedy's speech was a September goal to identify environmental toxins he purported were the cause of the rising rates of autism. "Our viewpoint, as an Affiliate of the Autism Society of America, is that statements like the ones shared by RFK are misleading and short deadlines to 'find a cause' are unrealistic and undermine the important work that researchers and scientists have been conducting for decades," Katie Hess, who serves as the executive director of the Autism Society of Greater Wisconsin, told the Journal Sentinel. Hess was far from alone in taking an opposing stance. Following the press conference, leading U.S. autism organizations released a joint statement condemning Kennedy's remarks. Relying on speculation and disinformation, the statement read, Kennedy's rhetoric only "perpetuates stigma." "Language framing Autism as a 'chronic disease,' a 'childhood disease' or 'epidemic' distorts public understanding and undermines respect for Autistic people," the joint statement read. "Research must be guided by credentialed experts and inclusive of the complexity and diversity of the lived experiences of the Autism community — not redirected by misinformation or ideology." When Hess read the CDC report on the uptick in prevalence, it indicated only that more people have been identified with autism than in previous reports. It doesn't mean there are necessarily more cases of autism, Hess said. "As more education has been shared and more research has been done for the past few decades, individuals are able to be identified earlier," Hess said. "We are also seeing more screenings of individuals in under-represented areas, which also is a factor in the increased numbers." Davis, from Wisconsin Family Ties, agreed. He said vast changes to diagnostic criteria published over the decades in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly referred to as the DSM, expanded the criteria of who falls into the autism category. Until 1980, the DSM, which lays out psychiatric diagnoses in the U.S., contained false leads in early autism research, according to a 2021 paper in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Among those early falsehoods, the DSM categorized autism as an early manifestation of schizophrenia. It wasn't until the DSM-5, released in 2013, that multiple categories of autism, including Asperger's, ADHD, and Rett's disorder, fell under one umbrella term that maintained and promoted the idea of a spectrum. Notably, for the report published April 15, CDC researchers conducted surveillance for autism spectrum disorder among children born in 2014. "It's more realistic to say the DSM-5 expanded who falls into the autism category," Davis said. "It's not surprising to me at all that there's an increase in prevalence, and I think that those answers, which the researchers also articulated, are the reason for this increase." Another moment Davis took exception to in Kennedy's speech — and one that perhaps garnered the most national reaction — was when he named all the experiences autistic people "will never be able to do," including filing taxes, playing baseball, holding a job, going on a date, writing a poem, and even using the bathroom on their own. Even when a reporter from Fox News noted that autism exists on a spectrum, containing both people who have sensory issues all the way through care-dependent individuals, Kennedy described autism as "a spectrum of injuries." Davis' 28-year-old autistic son has a job, files taxes, goes on dates, and indeed, he loves writing the occasional poems and is a great writer in his own right, his father said. There's a popular dating show, in fact, dedicated to people on the spectrum, he said. Of course, not everyone diagnosed with autism can live independently, but people with autism have always lived in a variety of settings, at every age, Davis said. That's part of what it means to be diagnosed on a broad spectrum. "There are people who are pretty profoundly impacted by these challenges," Davis said. "And we owe it to everyone to continue to research this ― not to hinder that research by saying, 'Well, we know it's the environment.' We don't know that. That's a patently false and ridiculous statement." After Emma Wiltgen, an autistic teenager from De Pere died by suicide in 2023, her mother Amy told USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin that her daughter struggled to find a place in the world. She felt like a burden to others, and feared growing up in a world that shunned people like her. Emma's experience, and that of thousands of others like her, is one reason why the reaction to Kennedy's speech was so vehement. In addition to peddling information with no scientific support, he framed everything as if people with autism contribute nothing, and that they are all injured burdens. For people concerned about the self-esteem and suicide ideation of those with autism, Kennedy sounded like his goal was to rid the world of autistic people, at one point even suggesting autism cases should be monitored the same as the country does with measles outbreaks. Although research into the suicide deaths, attempts and ideation of autistic people is relatively new, early data shows stark differences in autistic people and non-autistic people who die from, and attempt, suicide. A 2021 study from JAMA Network Open found that people with autism were three times likelier to attempt or die by suicide than those without autism across all age groups 10 and older. Another study from 2024 found that, in people who received an autism diagnosis as an adult, more than 60% contemplated suicide. That's especially concerning given that just 4.8% of non-autistic adults have thoughts of suicide. Available data suggested autistic adults were 25 times more likely to attempt suicide than non-autistic adults. On the surface, the risk factors behind this surge aren't so different from the reasons other groups die by suicide ― having a feeling of hopelessness, feeling "stuck," living with depression. Unique to autistic people, however, is the social pressure to be neurotypical, or "normal," and the lack of support for them to be themselves. Masking is a way for some autistic people to function in a society that doesn't accept or understand them. It means behaving in ways that aren't necessarily authentic to who they are — and it can be exhausting and depressing. Hess, from the Autism Society of Greater Wisconsin, said she hoped people with autism wouldn't feel the need to mask their behavior, that they would be comfortable being who they are. "Our responsibility as an inclusive culture is to welcome those of all abilities so they can be comfortable in a society where they belong and feel they can be the best version of themselves," she said. One of the more detrimental things Davis has seen that impacts societal attitudes is how autistic students are treated in schools. Restraint, seclusion and other disciplinary responses to behaviors don't help autistic children, yet a recent report from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction found that, despite students with disabilities comprising 15.3% of the statewide student population, they comprised more than 80% of all seclusion cases and more than 76% of all restraint cases in the 2023-24 school year. "The theory of our work is if you change adult attitudes, approaches and actions, you improve outcomes for kids," Davis said. "I think of a line I love from the show 'Ted Lasso.' 'We need to be more curious and less judgmental.' That's what we really need to do." Perhaps tellingly, in a leaked memo obtained last week by multiple media outlets, the Trump administration's 2026 budget outline includes cutting or eliminating federal autism programs. Wisconsin Family Ties runs a parent peer program, which links trained parent peer specialists with parents who need help and hope. Parents can request services through Wisconsin Family Ties' online form or by contacting the connection coordinator at info@ Autism Society of Greater Wisconsin is an affiliate of Autism Society of America. Among its many programs, it runs an informational and referral phone line for autistic individuals and families of autistic individuals. Call 888-428-8476 or 920-558-4602. Autism Society of South Central Wisconsin serves Crawford, Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette, Richland, Rock, and Sauk counties. For information and assistance, email info@ or call 608-630-9147. Autism Speaks has a selection of resources, tool kits and directories sorted by age and audience. They also provide videos ranging from descriptions of autism to examples of various common interventions. Organized by the Waisman Center, Community of Practice on Autism Spectrum Disorders and other Developmental Disabilities is a Wisconsin group comprising parents, researchers, physicians, and advocates that provides recorded presentations on a variety of subjects including anxiety, mental wellness, supporting challenging behavior, and more on its YouTube page. Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@ or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin groups call RFK Jr.'s autism speech offensive and harmful
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As legislators honor Jonathan Brostoff, some share the belief: 'We are not doing enough.'
If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741. MADISON – In one memory, a bushy-haired Jonathan Brostoff conducts a speech entirely in sign language, after vowing to not cut his hair until a bill on the American sign language interpreters passed in the Legislature. In another, Brostoff brings Sprecher root beer, his favorite, to share at the first caucus meeting of the year. The Wisconsin Legislature adopted a resolution Tuesday honoring the life and public service of Brostoff, a Democratic representative who served the 19th Assembly district from 2014 to 2023. He also served on the Milwaukee Common Council from 2022 until Nov. 4, 2024, when he died by suicide. He was 41 and is survived by his wife, Diana Vang-Brostoff, their four young children, and his parents, Phyllis and Alan Brostoff. His parents and wife attended the ceremony at the State Capitol. The resolution was introduced by 15 Democratic state senators and four Republican state senators. Many members of the Assembly brandished green ribbons, the symbol of mental health awareness, and shared memories of the former representative. They spoke of different parting words he'd offer people: "Bless up;" "I appreciate you;" and "We all do better when we all do better." Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde, D-Milwaukee, offered a Jewish expression, often uttered in mourning, "May his neshama have an aliyah," which means "May his soul be elevated." His former colleagues described him as fierce, tenacious, loyal, a person who did not give up on his convictions. One of his most passionate topics was also a lifelong struggle: suicide prevention. For Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, it was the table slap she remembers most distinctly. Brostoff, who served on the Speaker's Task Force on Suicide Prevention, slapped his palm on a table hard at a Wauwatosa meeting as he said, "We are not doing enough." His fury shook Vining and the act stayed with her. "My first feeling after he died was, 'We have not done enough,'" Vining said. Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc, who co-chairs the Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use Prevention, talked about Brostoff as a deeply spiritual friend. He used his time to share a concerning statistic: one in five people are affected by mental health. "If Jonathan were here, I don't think he'd want anybody going through this," Tittle said. "I think he'd say get that help. We as fellow humans, we have to reach out to our friends and let them know we're here for them." Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish, read a letter from Brostoff's family that underscored just how dire access to firearms is for people in crisis. The letter referenced an op-ed Brostoff wrote for Urban Milwaukee in 2019, highlighting a startling excerpt: "For people contemplating suicide, access to a firearm is like having your own personal, and permanent, 'delete' button," it read. "And let me tell you: having the power to use that delete button at your absolute lowest moment — when thoughts don't make sense and when calm, structured thinking is no longer part of the equation — is not something that anyone facing those types of struggles is equipped to handle." The morning of Brostoff's death, he had purchased a firearm. His body was found at a park before noon, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner report. "Our family believes that if he had been required to wait a day or two before purchasing a firearm last November to make that purchase, his life would have been spared," Brostoff's family letter read. It's been years since Wisconsin has enacted or repealed gun safety policies, despite significant pressure from lawmakers like Brostoff. The state has failed to pass laws requiring background checks for all gun sales, and has yet to put extreme risk laws, also known as red flag laws, on the books, which would allow for quick intervention when a person is at serious risk of harming themselves or others with a firearm. "One of the most effective things we can do as legislators to save lives and help people facing a mental health crisis is to temporarily restrict their access to firearms," State Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, told the Journal Sentinel. "Access to a gun during a crisis can be the difference between an irreversible tragedy and life." State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, a longtime friend of Brostoff, told the Journal Sentinel that he and his colleagues will continue to fight for stronger gun safety policies, but acknowledged that it's become a partisan issue. "That one keeps hitting the wall on an ideological basis," Larson said. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told the Journal Sentinel in January that "taking firearms away from people who have not been convicted of a crime would be a non-starter," even in the wake of Brostoff's death. "All of us feel bad about Jonathan Brostoff's death, but to somehow use it as a cheap political stunt to try to get legislation passed that we know is not going to happen really demeans Jonathan's memory and I think that's pretty sad," Vos said. For State Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, the senate minority leader, the state has "a long way to go" on improving crisis resources for Wisconsinites. "Democrats have put measures out every single session trying to help people in many different ways, especially those who are contemplating the final act of suicide," Hesselbein said. "We'll continue to do that." 988 Wisconsin Lifeline connects residents experiencing a crisis to a trained in-state or national counselor. Call or text 988, or chat through the Lifeline's website. For veteran support, call 988 and then press 1, or text 838255 or chat via the Veterans Crisis Line website. To be connected with LGBTQ+ supports, call 988, then press 3, or text the word "PRIDE" to 988. Milwaukee Mobile Crisis provides non-police mobile responses to mental health crisis and intervention in people of all ages in the Milwaukee County community. Call 414-257-7222 for a mental health crisis, a mental health assessment, assistance with stabilization, or connections to ongoing resources. Prevent Suicide Wisconsin connects residents to county crisis lines, which provide supports and assessments, link people to resources within the community, and, when needed, send mobile crisis response teams to provide in-person support. The Center for Suicide Awareness allows residents to communicate by text only. Text 'Hopeline' to 741741 to be connected with a trained, in-state counselor for any issue. 211 Wisconsin is a free and confidential three-digit line that connects callers to local mental health programs and services. Call 211, text your ZIP code to 898211, chat now, or search the site for services. Uplift Wisconsin, a peer-support service operated through Mental Health America of Wisconsin, connects Wisconsin residents with certified peer specialists, those with lived experiences mental health, substance use and other related life experiences between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Call Uplift Wisconsin at 534-202-5438. LGTBQ youth can call 866-488-7386, text 'START' to 678678, or chat at to speak with a trained counselor for any issue. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: As lawmakers honor Brostoff, they revisit his call to limit gun access
