Missing Teen Brings Community Together

One girl has brought our community together.

At San Ramon Valley High School, students from all grade levels are wearing blue to support the effort to find missing teenager Allison "Alliy" Bayliss, even though most of them have never even met her.

On Monday, the very first night of the search for her, people of all ages gathered at to look for Alliy. After her bike was found in San Francisco Tuesday, others drove all the way to the city just to put up signs for her.

As the search expanded, more and more people got involved. Multiple Facebook groups have been started, some with thousands of people following them.

Unfortunately, with every bit of news, there is controversy. The original Facebook event, which reached more than 11,000 people, drew criticism and hateful remarks. The negative comments were far outnumbered by the amount of hopeful remarks but still did not go unseen.

Because of that, the original Facebook page was shut down, and a new one was created. The official page appears to have been created by Alliy's aunt.

Though students at are hopeful of Alliy’s return, many questions have been floating around campus. Why did she run away? Has she done this before? Did she actually intend to kill herself?

While no one can answer these questions right now, this unfortunate situation has opened the eyes of many teenagers. They are suddenly starting to realize how much they can relate to Alliy, in the sense that they have — at one point or another — just wanted to run away from it all.

Last week, Kevin Hines visited San Ramon Valley High to tell his story and spread awareness that “suicide is never the solution to any problem.” As he told his story about surviving a suicide attempt by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, many students were reduced to tears.

This assembly was meant to prevent suicide and spread the message of living mentally well. Now that our students are seeing a suicide crisis happening in front of them, some are beginning to realize that suicide prevention happens right now, not when it’s already too late.

More than ever, students are not wasting time telling the people they care about that they are special to them. Why wait to tell someone when that could be all they really need to hear that day? We all go through stress and traumatic events, and sometimes, we just need to feel that love.

In the end, this tragic search has brought a community together and opened the eyes of many young adults. As the search continues, everyone should think of a way to show someone you care about him or her because in the end, that could make all the difference.