Knoxville High School set aside a day devoted to helping students address the challenges they face, and could lead them to consider suicide; and the keynote speaker told them of the troubles he’s faced in his life, and how he was able to overcome them.

The Power to Stand saw the school dispense with the usual classes, and instead devote the day to the issue of suicide prevention.

Main speaker Chris Norton was a football player at Luther College when a spinal injury during a game left him paralyzed. He was told he only had a 3% chance of ever feeling or moving below the neck ever again; but after years of physical therapy he was able to walk and receive his diploma…and later walk down the aisle with his wife.

Norton tells KNIA/KRLS News many teens have their own struggles and challenges which are less obvious than his, but with the support of others and belief in themselves they too can stand up for themselves again.

“We all have that power to stand back up, no matter what we’re facing; and so I just use my story and my messages to help lift the students up…give them the power to raise up and rise up from whatever they’re facing,” Norton says.

“Because in life it’s easier to get down on yourself and what’s going on, it feels like you just want to give up. And so I want to be there to motivate and inspire anyone who feels like giving up.”

Students were asked last fall to select topics they would like to discuss during the course of this forum; a number of breakout sessions devoted to these various subjects were scheduled throughout the day, and students were able to take in up to three of them.

The event was a joint effort of Your Life Matters, the Marion County Coalition for Suicide Prevention, the Knoxville Community School District and the Marion County Public Health Department.