HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Daniel Adamek, fighting off tears with his every word, this morning pleaded with the medical community to step up and make mental health care more readily available to those in need.

Adamek's son, Christian, died Oct. 3 of a hypoxic brain injury he sustained the day before when he hanged himself. The teen, a Sparkman High School student, was two weeks shy of his 16th birthday.

Christian also died less than a week after being disciplined for streaking across the Sparkman football field during a timeout in the Senators' Sept. 27 game against Grissom High. Though details of his discipline were never made public by school officials, there were rumors of expulsion and that the teen had been told he could end up on a sex offender registry.



Christian Adamek is pictured in an undated family photo. Adamek, 15, died Oct. 3 of injuries sustained when he hanged himself the day before. The Sparkman High School student's death came less than a week after he found himself in trouble for streaking at the Senators' Sept. 27 football game against Grissom High. (Contributed photo)

Daniel Adamek called a news conference at Sci-Quest, where he serves on the board and where his family held Christian's memorial service, to speak out about his son's battle with depression over the final months of his life. Adamek also dispelled rumors that his son had been threatened with sex offender status.

"I never heard such a thing," Adamek said of the rumors.

Adamek said blaming Christian's suicide on one event is "terribly over-simplistic" and called the national publicity over Christian's streaking and subsequent death a distraction from the more important story. He explained that his family had been struggling in vain for months to find Christian the help he needed for depression.

"Nobody should have to make more than one phone call to get that kind of help, because there's just not that much time," Adamek said.

Adamek declined to go into specifics about Christian's problems, saying "it doesn't matter anymore," but said that the family had tried for months to find the right mental health professionals for his son. They were met with obstacles like insurance issues and a lack of the right doctors.

"We followed every avenue apparently available to us, through the medical community, through the hospital system, but still couldn't get the necessary diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring that he so desperately needed," Adamek said.

"We needed to know what he needed. That's the help we were looking for."

Adamek thanked the local and national community for the support the family has received since Christian's death. He also urged people not to lay blame on Sparkman principal Michael Campbell or the school.

When asked what help he would like to see established in the schools to help those suffering as his son did, Adamek again emphasized the need for the right professional help.

"(We need) to make sure never is a voice dismissed," Adamek said.

"Our children need to know that they can find help to remedy the pain they feel from things they don't likely understand themselves."

Adamek has started a memorial fund in his son's name in an advocacy effort for mental health care reform. Anyone wishing to support that effort can donate to the Christian Adamek Memorial Fund at Redstone Federal Credit Union.

Donations can be made at any Redstone Federal branch, or by sending a donation to Jay W. Newkirk, chair of the Energy Huntsville Initiative, at 103 Spring Meadow Drive SW in Huntsville, zip code 35824.