Update on Suicide Prevention Training
Families:
I want to extend a huge thank you to our counseling staff for their work with suicide prevention. Although part of the district wide suicide prevention plan, this is truly the vision Ms. Hanson outlined at the end of the 2017-18 school year. With a student-first motivation, she led the mental team in completing research on best practices and investigating what would work with our kids. This year we began implementation with the freshman class and integration with the district initiative. By the end of the 3rd quarter, we completed the initial training with all students, which included suicide awareness sessions, initial screeners and follow-ups with our students.
The data from these efforts provided us with students who needed individual intervention and a starting point for creating further intervention and provisions for our kids. Here are the number of students that showed signs of concern and need for intervention for depression and/or suicidal ideation:
Freshman: 125/399 – 31%
Sophomores: 108/337 – 32%
Juniors: 72/319 – 23%
Seniors: 56/295 – 19% (this is not an accurate representation, as we were not able to meet with all of the seniors, but we met with as many as we could)
Total Student Body: 361/1350 –27%
Through this process our counselors were able to reach out to students and families in need, building relationships and systems of support; however, we need everyone’s assistance in supporting our kids. Stop and think about the fact that more than 1 in 4 of our students are in need of support. If you have any concerns about a student, please let us know so we can provide care for those in need.