Kevin Porter Quotes

Kevin Porter: When kids feel powerless… when they feel they have no avenue for understanding… they act out. Hannah and I, we failed each other. If we had only tried harder, each of us, to reach out, to understand, to trust each other, to let ourselves help and be helped, it would have made all the difference. I can’t go back and fix my mistake. I can’t change the past. We have to trust each other. We have to ask for help.

Kevin Porter: My name is Kevin Porter. I’m a guidance counselor at Liberty High School. I would say I help as many kids as I can. That’s why I got into education. But I don’t get to see every kid. I try to keep an eye out, but you have to count on kids to come to you. And not every kid who does come to you is able to ask for the help they need. Not every kid tells you the whole truth. Not every kid who comes to you in pain can tell you where it hurts. She said she didn’t mean it. I made the mistake of believing her. Hannah told me she was struggling, but she didn’t specifically mention suicide. I think we all wish it could have gone differently. We can have the best intentions and still fall short. Some kids can’t speak their truth. Some won’t. To us, to their families… And some kids have secrets they believe they have to keep for their own survival. And we may think we know what they’re going through, but each kid goes through it… in their own way. And so they think they’re the only person in the world feeling what they’re feeling, and that no one could possibly understand. They think that what’s hurting can never be healed. So they don’t tell us. They hide, they deflect. They try to become the person they think we want to see. And for many kids, trust doesn’t come easy. Trusting an adult with something so personal… I can understand her silence. I can understand why she couldn’t say those words to me.