Lizzie’s father Jeff Gupton

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Gupton, a 17-year-old former Eureka High School senior who took her own life back in November, will indeed have a page celebrating her life in the 2015 EHS yearbook. This after, as the Outpost reported yesterday, the page’s inclusion was called into question by school administration over concerns that such a memorial could inspire more students into similar actions. 

In a brief meeting at Eureka High School this morning attended by the Outpost, Lizzie’s father, Jeff Gupton, met with Eureka High Principal Jennifer Johnson and school counselor Monica Rivera to discuss what kind of Lizzie-related content would be appropriate for this year’s yearbook. Both sides agreed that the page should focus on Lizzie’s experiences at Eureka High and that administration would work with yearbook staff to ensure that the content was acceptable to all. 

“I’m very happy with the result,” Jeff Gupton told us after today’s meeting.

The positive outcome of today’s gathering felt inevitable at the outset as all seemed to want to get past the issue. Principal Johnson said that she’d sought the advice of school and county officials and had devoted time to researching mental health issues as they relate to the situation. She is tasked with caring for the entire student body and making sure they have the resources they need. While she hopes to have consistency on how student deaths are dealt with, ultimately she wants to respect and work with their families over how their children are represented in EHS’s yearbook pages.

“We just want the content to be something that is reflective of Lizzie,” Principal Johnson expressed, adding that she hoped the photos chosen for the yearbook would be representative of Lizzie’s time at Eureka High and her participation in, for example, the school’s drama club. There was some discussion over whether it would be wise to include the number to a suicide hotline somewhere in the memorial page, but both sides agreed the emphasis should be on Lizzie’s life.   

While an agreement was reached, Jeff Gupton said he found it disconcerting that his family only heard about possible issues with Lizzie’s page the week before the yearbook’s submission deadline.  

“I haven’t lost this much sleep since Lizzie died,” Gupton said, noting that the family felt blindsided by the uncertainty over the fate of Lizzie’s page. “This is stress I didn’t need.”

Standing outside the high school after the meeting and feeling relieved, Gupton showed us a tattoo on his left forearm reading “My Sweetie Pie” accompanied by the dates of Lizzie’s birth and passing. He and other family members got similar tattoos earlier this year on what would have been Lizzie’s 18th birthday. For Jeff, the ink is a work in progress. 

“Every time her birthday comes around I’m taking the day off and getting tattoos added to this arm,” Gupton said. “Years from now it’ll be a whole piece.”

PREVIOUSLY: Eureka High Administration Concerned Over Yearbook Memorial Page For Student Who Took Her Own Life