TILTON — In response to a controversy over student requests to dedicate a section — or an entire page — of Winnisquam Regional High School’s Class of 2013 yearbook to a popular student who committed suicide last year, the school district and the yearbook staff have agreed to include the girl, school officials said late Friday.

Alexandria “Ali” Rose Nixon took her own life on May 23, 2011, 10 days before her 16th birthday. Students want to remember her because she was a good friend and was part of their class, said Corina Alexander, Nixon’s stepmother.

“She was one of them. It’s the kind of thing where they’ll be looking back at their yearbook when they’re older and they want her to be there,” Alexander said.

Tammy Davis, superintendent of schools, said school staff met with the yearbook staff Friday and it was decided that a yearbook “ad” with some of Nixon’s favorite flowers would be placed, along with some suicide prevention messages.

The school is trying to be responsive to the students’ wishes but acting within the district’s critical response guidelines that require educators to consider that others may need suicide counseling rather than seeing something “sensationalizing” the act of suicide, Davis said.

“We want to recognize Ali as a member of the class, but not memorialize her,” Davis said.

In a 2011 publication, “After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools,” the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention warns of negative consequences from putting a memorial ad in a yearbook without adequately working toward suicide prevention. The foundation recommends that yearbook memorials should focus on mental health issues and/or suicide prevention, “whenever possible.”

“It can be challenging for schools to strike a comfortable balance between compassionately meeting the needs of distraught students while preserving the ability of the school to fulfill its primary purpose of education. In the case of suicide, schools must also consider how to appropriately memorialize the student who has died without risking suicide contagion among those surviving students who may themselves be at risk.”

The foundation also noted that “the guiding principle is that all deaths should be treated the same way,” adding that if sections or pages of a school’s yearbook have traditionally been dedicated to students who have died of other causes, the same consideration should apply to a student who commits suicide, “provided that final editorial decisions are made by an adult.”

Davis said much of the concern expressed late last week was based on inaccurate information. A petition, titled “Give Ali Nixon a page in the yearbook,” was circulated in the schools, on social media and on a website claiming that the school is “overlooking Ali’s death.”

Some claimed in web posts that the petition had been torn up by a teacher, when in fact, the student who wrote the petition tore up the survey shortly after writing it, Davis said.

Many also complained that the school system was avoiding a bullying problem. They claimed that Nixon’s death was caused in part by bullying.

But Alexander said Nixon’s suicide wasn’t the result of bullying.

“It wasn’t (bullying),” Alexander said. “She wasn’t bullied more than anyone else.”

The petition noted that school officials had declined an offer from a student’s father to pay for an entire yearbook page in memory of Nixon. “Though in 2010, they had a page for someone else’s death,” the petition read.

Davis said the staff and the yearbook editors agreed on the ad for Nixon rather than a page.

Alexander isn’t sure the students will be satisfied. “I guess it’s better than nothing, but the kids were really hoping for at least a picture,” she said.

- - - - - - - -

Dan Seufert may be reached at dseufert@newstote.com.