Here’s what grieving Myers Park High School parents want others to understand
One of the hardest things for the parents left behind, it turns out, is living with the public’s desire for a simple explanation.
Was it pressure? Bullying? Social media? Mental illness? School culture?
After long periods of grief, reflection and painful self-questioning, most of the families interviewed by The Charlotte Observer no longer seem interested in reducing their children’s deaths to any one thing.
Instead, they describe something messier and far more difficult to live with:
They did not fully realize how much pain their children were carrying.
Again and again, grieving parents described children who continued functioning outwardly — going to school, maintaining friendships, playing sports and making plans for the future — even while privately struggling.
Danielle South, whose son Parker was a Myers Park High senior when he took his own life last November, says she has since come to believe he himself may not have fully understood what was happening emotionally.
“Because of the lack of conversation around it, education around it,” she says, “Parker did not know that what was happening to him was a health issue, and that it was temporary, and that we could have gotten him help.”
Coble Ishee’s parents, meanwhile, say their son became skilled at concealing the full extent of how significantly he was suffering.
“We knew he was struggling, and we were desperately trying to figure out what to do,” says Jennifer Branca of her son, who took his own life in 2021, when he was a sophomore at Myers Park. “We were desperate to try and figure out, Where could we send him? Is there an in-patient option? …
“Nobody is culpable for this, and if anybody is, it’s Trey and myself,” Jennifer concludes. “And I would like to impart to kids, ‘Hey, even if you think somebody is just exaggerating — it’s hyperbole — share it with an adult, whether it’s a teacher or your own parent, or tell the person’s parent. Even if they get mad, please, please share.”
Adds Danielle South: “Every situation has been so unique, and the reasons behind all the tragedies have been so varied. If you could say, Oh, it’s the pressure of college, or it’s the pressure of sports, or it’s the pressure of social media — if you could pinpoint it down for any number of them — then you could hone in on how to help and what to change, and what to do different.
“But they’ve all been so vastly different. That makes it even more complicated. It’s like Whack-a-Mole (with trying to figure out) where do you direct your resources?”
Meanwhile, on a more intimate level, the parents are all determined to keep their children’s memories alive.
Lara Fleming, whose daughter Abby took her own life during her sophomore year at Myers Park in 2023, is doing it in part through the ladybug pins she hopes will bring comfort to Abby’s grieving friends at graduation.
The Souths continue supporting mental-health awareness efforts in Parker’s name while staying connected to the Myers Park community he loved so deeply; last month, they were in Raleigh to share Parker’s story in advocating for House Bill 1159, titled “Investing in Teen Mental Health.” The effort includes a program based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that teaches high schoolers how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use among their friends.
Jennifer Branca also has spoken publicly about Coble at youth-running programs and workplaces in hopes that openness around mental health might help other struggling teenagers feel less alone.
But above all else, the parents want people to know their children were bigger than the way they died.
“He was a ton of fun as a kid,” Jennifer says of Coble. “He had a ton of life, a ton of energy, he was very passionate about the things he was passionate about, and he had a lot of great friends. And so I think we look back on his life — and as time passes from his death — I think we try and spend more and more time focusing on who he was, and how he lived 98% of his life.”
She describes him as “a real empath, in every sense of the word.”
And it turns out that a common theme among the victims, according to the parents we spoke with, is that their kids were caretakers — emotionally attuned and deeply loved.
“In high school,” Bo South says of his son Parker, “he was the kid that made everybody else feel good, who recognized somebody wasn’t getting attention and would go and bring them in and kind of lift them up. … Looking for people, ‘Hey, you doing okay?’ Part of that was what made it so shocking for us, was that his nature was so helpful.”
Oh, and there’s one more thing these parents want you to know: It’s okay to talk to them about their kids.
“One of the biggest fears that a parent who’s lost a child has is that your child will be forgotten, that their memory will be forgotten,” Lara Fleming says. “Don’t be scared to say Abby’s name, or to tell us a story about Abby.”
“We’re always thinking about her, and we’re always thinking about losing her,” Lara says. “So you’re not hurting us by bringing her up.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, help is available. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for confidential support.
This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
