Kyle Clausen said he had been pushed to the limit. As a high school freshman, he decided he had been bullied for years, and he was ready to end it all. He was ready to commit suicide.

Were it not for a phone call from his father, Clausen, now a Kaneland graduate, said he would have succeeded. Friends have asked him what he was thinking at that moment.

“Nothing,” he said. “Absolutely nothing … how good it would be if I was gone. When you are that low in your life or that far away from everyone who loves you, the last thing on your mind is anybody else.”