Roy Exum
Hobbs, New Mexico, is a sleepy yet proud town of about 40,000 and sits in the southern corner of the state. It’s less than 10 miles from the Texas border and a 30-minute car ride from Denver City, TX, or Seminole, TX, depending on which fork in the road you take, and “Hobbs hot” is what happens when two-thirds of the year its over 90 degrees most days and it's extremely rare to get over three inches of rain a month.
The biggest reason folks live there is because it sits on a huge oil patch known as the Permian Basin, which kindled the great movie, “Friday Night Lights.” Hobbs’ most noble son is famed University of Texas football star Colt McCoy, twice a Heisman Trophy finalist who now plays for the NFL’s New York Giants.
A couple of years ago it was whispered there may be another from Hobbs just as good as Colt.
I met Kooper and learned his story yesterday in a stunning article written by Alec MacGillis, a brilliant investigative reporter for the news website, Propublica.org/article/the-lost-year-what-the-pandemic-cost-teenagers
Kooper Davis, a strong-armed 6-foot-four quarterback, had a good sophomore year, strong enough to get invited to the all-star camps. But last March the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked the nation and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took the stance most Democrat governors did – locking the state down with a steel vise – while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican – is much more of a “don’t flinch, full throttle” kind of guy. “You mighty right schools will stay open, and we’re playing sports, too.”
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AN ASIDE: I staunchly refuse to blame any elected official – Democrat or Republican – for any COVID decision any one of them made in any area since March, 2020. As far as I am concerned, “our Americans” made decisions on what they felt was best on that particular day, and my heart overflows with gratitude that in less than a year since the coronavirus was first reported in Chattanooga, I have received the vaccine. Further: I believe President Biden misspoke regarding his involvement in the roll-out. On the day he took the oath of the presidency 1.3 million doses of vaccine had been administered and 40 million doses had just been shipped across the country; the Biden administration has performed just as extraordinary in grasping the baton and helping get more needles in arms that any of us ever imagined … who really cares you get the credit.
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But you can see where this is going. Kooper Davis could only watch from 30 miles away from New Mexico while the Texas teams played and the New Mexico teams did not. Kooper often said that suddenly the two biggest loves of his life were taken away – school and football. He earned straights A’s, the only male in school inducted into the Junior Honor Society with 20 girls. His teammates razzed him about it, to which he laughed back, “I love it.”
And everybody in school loved him back. He took every advanced placement class available and relished in discussing the characters in Romeo & Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Outsider, and more. Once at church his mother heard an excited 9-year-old tell her father, “Guess what: Kooper Davis knows my name!”
But like every child in the United States, he absolutely hated “virtual school.” It is already proving to be the abomination of modern-day education. Teachers who dare tell the truth will admit we’ve had a year of nothing. There is nobody for a child to play with, to be best friends. Our mental health experts now say without a friend to laugh with, no one to share snide comments, discuss what impact national news has on the Hobbs community, the mental result is brutal. The churches locked down tight, religious people the nation over have outwardly mourned, and soon the psychological effect the lockdowns have had on children came home to Hobbs.
In the last year, an outgoing 11-year-old Landon Fuller rode his bicycle to a large field not far from his house and took his life. “I think the big question we all have is why, and we will never know the reason why,” his mother, Katrina Fuller, told an Albuquerque TV talk show in July. “The only thing that I was able to find was in his journal, was that he had wrote that he was going mad from staying at home all the time and that he just wanted to be able to go to school and play outside with his friends. So that was the only thing that I can imagine what was going through his head at that time.”
Kids in Texas whose parents opted for virtual education returned to school classrooms within two weeks. Children thrive with other children. As psychiatry professor David Brent, said from the University of Pittsburgh, “Participation in sports and a connection to school can have a profound protective effect” against mental illness.
According to data from the World Health Organization, someone dies by suicide every 40 seconds - 800,000 per year - and for every suicide, 20 more were attempted. That means 5-7 people will commit suicide during the time it takes you to read this column.
Kooper fought to stay upbeat: On Dec. 6 he posted a Facebook note: “With these tough times around, I know there are many of those in need, and I want to give back to my community. If any of ya’ll know of anyone unable to leave their homes, I am willing to wait in line and pick up their groceries for them, or even run simple errands. Please pm me is you or anyone you know could use a helping hand.”
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“OVER TIME, THE ANHEDONIA, IS GOING TO DRIVE YOU DOWN”
NOTE: An excerpt from Alec MacGillis’ story on propublica.org: ‘The Lost Year: What The Pandemic Costs Teenagers’ published March 8, 2021:
“Mental health experts struggle to identify a precedent for the challenge this pandemic is producing for many Americans. In prior pandemics where the technology was not available for remote work or remote schooling, lockdowns and social isolation were not as extreme and did not last as long as what we’ve lived through this past year.
“And the psychological stress that the pandemic has produced for so many Americans of all ages is unlike so many more acute crises that we might experience in life, said Nick Allen, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oregon.
“There’s a difference between a stressor that makes your life unpleasant and intolerable and a stressor that takes away good things,” he said.
“For a lot of people, the stressor that COVID represents is one that takes away good things. You can’t go to sporting events, you can’t see your friends, you can’t go to parties. It’s not necessarily that you’re experiencing abuse, though some may be. What’s happening is that we’re taking away high points in people’s lives that give them reward and meaning.
“That may have an effect over time. The initial response is not as difficult as something that’s stressful, but over time, the anhedonia, the loss of pleasure, is going to drive you down a lot more.”
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This is what happened to one of the most promising young people in the United States. Straight A’s, a great athlete, no warning, and empty promises things will get better. The day after he posted on Facebook his willingness to help anyone, Kooper Davis took his life.
When the ProPublica writer MacGillis spoke to his father, his dad Justin Davis was eager to talk. “He was at a loss over what he and Heather might have missed. “I had an open relationship with my son,” he said. “It’s baffling to us to figure out why he didn’t come to us.”
Suicide is ultimately an unfathomable act, but Justin said he was sure of one thing. “No doubt, if my son had been in school on Monday this wouldn’t have happened,” he said. “He would’ve had an adult standing next to him, a coach saying, ‘Kooper, quit being a dummy.’” The only way he could make sense of it, Justin said, was that “for about fifteen seconds of Kooper’s life, he let his guard down and the devil came in and convinced him of something that was wrong.”
His only solace was seeing the effect the loss had on Kooper’s classmates, who were, he said, turning their lives over to God, sending letters to the governor, and generally spreading word of his son’s goodness far and wide.
“I believe God needed him now,” he told the author.
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OUT-TAKE ONE: “Even before the coronavirus arrived, teen mental health was a cause for growing concern. Researchers and mental health professionals had come to the conclusion that, as David Brent, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatry professor, put it to me, “One thing that’s protective against it is connection to school and family and peers. We know that participation in sports and a connection to school can have a profound protective effect.” – Alec McGillis.
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OUT-TAKE TWO: “The novel coronavirus, by contrast, has hit the elderly the hardest. The median age for COVID-19 fatalities in the U.S. is about 80. Of the nearly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of (earlier this month), 252 were among those 18 or younger - five hundredths of a percent of the total. The CDC has also recorded about 2,000 cases of an inflammatory syndrome that has afflicted some children after they contracted the virus, resulting in about 30 additional deaths. Doctors are still uncertain whether children who survived that syndrome will experience long-term heart issues or other health problems.” – Alec MacGillis.
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THE NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE 1-800-273-8255
Please make sure your children have a copy of this number so they can supply it to someone they know who might need it. The phone will be answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by a real, live person and help is immediately available.
royexum@aol.com