It's a difficult subject to talk to your kids about. Your son is still young enough that you can avoid it. My son is a HS freshman. I believe there was a kid that committed suicide last year while my son was still in middle school. There are suicide awareness and hotline posters literally plastered everywhere in the school. He asked me about all the posters right after school started and it really freaked me out.
Anyway, maybe there is a way to do something meaningful. I mean something more than wearing a ribbon on a helmet. That seems to have become a cliche. If there is something the new medical school can do or the Pyschology Department can do (a mental health program named after Hilinski, a chair named after him, something). I think it's OK to remember things that have rocked you to the core. That's certainly the situation here.
Obviously no one wants to do anything that "glorifies" suicide. Kids can, and do, look at others doing this and use it to justify their feelings and actions. Copycat/Pacts/Clusters all happen with suicide in younger folks. That needs to be taken into account and prevented if at all possible. That prevention is up to all of us as parents, grandparents, friends, and partners/spouses (for those in need who are older).
And it needs to happen in our approach to life, and how we interact with younger folks, as well as all those around us. One never knows if who they are interacting with is walking that fine edge.
It doesn't always show.
Awareness and kindness also needs to extend past our inner circle. I'm in no way suggesting we all need to aggressively approach someone who seems to be just having a bad day, of course. But a bit of awareness and kindness can always make anyone's load a little lighter. Obviously, if there's a sense of a deeper issue, trying to get a higher level of help involved is the idea.
The professionals can mostly help when someone reaches out, or someone's actions put them in the professional's care.
I don't believe anyone wants to to trivialize Tyler's passing by making a "cliche" gesture towards his memory. But often those methods, the wearing of the number as a helmet sticker or jersey patch, moment of silence, the suggested "missing man" formation, etc, etc are the most reasonable and visible means of remembering him, in the short term.
Whatever is done should not be looked at as glorifying the way he died, rather as remembering the person he was and impact he had on those around him. I know that even well meaning gestures could be misinterpreted by some as glorifying, or condoning the way his life was ended. But that shouldn't keep WSU from finding a way to be able to recognize Tyler for the person he was and how he will be missed.
In the short run, that may be doing something that some look at as cliche?
In the long run, I honestly hope that some of the deeper ideas come true, about (with his family's approval) putting his name to something lasting with the medical school's mental health training department, or a Psychology Dept mental health program. That would be truly meaningful and would preserve his memory in a positive way, long term.