She saw the emptiness in her 13-year-old son’s face, a blank expression void of personality.

On that Thursday in early December, she immediately knew something was wrong. And he told her as much: he had been thinking of suicide. All day. Over and over and over.

She didn’t know what to do, so she called 911. She was directed to a San Diego-area emergency room. During intake, a doctor asked her son if he had a plan to kill himself. He did.

“He was going to take a toaster into a bathtub full of water and end his life,” said the boy’s mother, …