The North Carolina General Assembly passed the Parent Bill of Rights in August of last year, and now school systems in the state have found a potentially life-threatening oversight in its language. 

Around midnight on Christmas Eve in 2006, Jonathan Lubecky found himself alone in a Raleigh tavern listening to church bells chiming off in the distance.

The family of a Sylva woman who died by suicide in the Jackson County Detention Center last year has filed suit in federal district court against members of the sheriff’s department who handled her incarceration. Filed by Rice’s son Matthew Dillard, who is the administrator of Rice’s estate, the suit seeks a series of judgments that would easily exceed $3 million if granted in full. He claims that the defendants’ “negligent” acts and “malicious, willful and wanton disregard” for Rice’s rights led to her death.

Hanging was the cause of death for a woman who died Jan. 18 while in custody of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, according to documents provided by the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. 

Editor's note: some names in this story have been changed to honor a request from the family of the deceased. 

At 13, Tuscola High School freshman Zemra Teuta was like almost any other American teenage girl — she liked popular music, boys, hanging out with friends and chatting on social media. 

Zemra, however, wasn’t like every other teenage American girl. She was different. 

Imagine this — you’re atop a hundred-story building, and it’s on fire. As the flames and smoke close in, you really don’t want to jump, but there simply doesn’t seem to be any other way. 

Many among us have been touched by the tragedy of suicide, and in the age of social media, many more of us have heard or seen behavior from family, friends or even total strangers that gives us pause.