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1. Continue to educate yourself and your school team on identifying signs of depression in students.

2. Collaborate with the on campus behavioral interventionist and school psychologist on best practices for students with anxiety and depression.

3. Educate students on the long term effects and permanence of suicide.

4. Never neglect your clients who are dealing with depression, hold them accountable and always check in.

5. Guide and support all students to be resilient.

6. Recognize your diverse environment and cultivate partnerships will all stakeholders.

7. Provide resources for students, parents and teachers.

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Source About Topic:
Video

Citation:
YouTube. (2017). Effective Suicide Prevention. YouTube. Retrieved July 23, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjocWVROfc.

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjocWVROfc

Summary:
This is a video that teaches and highlights the importance of preventing suicide. It provides strategies and models for others that are proven most likely to be effective in preventing suicide.

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Ethical Code Item:

ACA Code of Ethics

A.12.

Abandonment and Client Neglect

Citation:
A.12.

Link:
https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Connection to Topic:
This code protects clients from neglect from their counselor. If a session gets canceled, the counselor needs to be sure to make arrangements to follow up. If a student is showing signs of suicide, this code has the counselor making sure they are following up and rescheduling if necessary so that the client always gets help.

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School Policy:
The JISD counseling team will guide, support, and empower all students to be resilient in a diverse environment and cultivate partnerships with all stakeholders.

Link to the policy if possible: https://www.joshuaisd.org/Page/14155

Brief summary:
Joshua ISD provides numerous resources for all stakeholders to receive access to for suicide prevention, awareness, education, and mental health resources.

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Law:

American School Counselor Association

Appropriate collaboration, advocacy, and referrals for counseling.

A.6.a

Citation:
American School Counselor Association.

(2016). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors.

Link to Source:
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

Summary:
Collaborate with all stakeholders, including students, school faculty/staff and parents/guardians, when students need assistance, including when early warning signs of student distress are identified.

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Law:

Administrative Law

Health and Human Services

Citation:
26. Tex. Admin. Code § 307

Link to Source:
https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=

&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=26&pt=1&ch=307&rl=1

Summary:
Enables more flexibility in providing intensive community-based services for children and adolescents, and provides support for their families by improving access to services.

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Law:

Statutory Law

State Statue

Responsive Services

Tex. Educ. Code § 33.005

Citation:
Tex. Educ. Code § 33.005

Link to Source:
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.33.htm

Summary:
This law is part of the comprehensive school counseling program. This law requires that the school counselor must intervene on behalf of any student who's immediate personal concern may risk their personal, educational, and social development.

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Law:

Statutory Law

United States Code

42 US Code § 290bb-36

Citation:
Office of the Law and Revision Counsel. (n.d.). United States Code. 42 USC 290BB-36A: Suicide Prevention For Youth. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title42-section290bb-36a&num=0&edition=prelim

Link to Source:
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section290bb-36a&num=0&edition=prelim

Summary:
This law is to allow grant funding to the public schools to put into place intervention and prevention strategies for students who have thoughts of suicide. This is a broad law that allows the surrounding community resources as well as school personnel to prevent and raise awareness on suicide prevention and mental health.

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Citation:
Kekatos, M., & Benadjaoud, Y. (2023, April 27). 1/3 of US Teen Girls Seriously Considered Attempting Suicide in 2021: CDC. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-teen-girls-considered-attempting-suicide-2021-cdc/story?id=98901688

Link:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-teen-girls-considered-attempting-suicide-2021-cdc/story?id=98901688

Summary:

Percentage increases following pandemic.

Grade level comparisons

2019 to 2021 bar chart comparison

Risk Factors

Taking an Approach

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The number of teenage girls experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased during the second year of the pandemic, new federal data showed.

The percentage of high school female students who seriously considered attempting suicide rose from 24.1% to about one-third, or 30%, between 2019 and 2021, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The percentage of those who made a suicide plan increased from 19.9% to 23.6% and there was also an increase in suicide attempts from 11.0% to 13.3%, according to the CDC survey.

Differences were seen when it came to students' ages, race/ethnicity or gender identity.

For example, 9th and 10th-grade girls were more likely to seriously consider attempting suicide than 12th-grade girls.

Ninth graders who were seriously considering suicide increased from 23.7% in 2019 to 30.7% in 2021 and 10th graders saw an increase from 23.6% to 33.6% over the same period. However, for 12th-grade girls, the risk went up from 24.0% in 2019 to 25.6% in 2021.

Freshman and sophomore high school girls were also more likely to make a suicide plan and attempt suicide compared to senior high school girls, according to the CDC.

US Teen Girls Experiencing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

"Because of the increased prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among female students, particularly for those in 9th- and 10th-grade, the importance of early prevention and intervention to prevent suicide is evident," the authors wrote.

In 2021, Black students were nearly 1.5 times more likely than white female students to report having attempted suicide.

Compared to white female students, Hispanic female students had increased rates of suicide attempts requiring medical attention.

Additionally, LGBQ+ students had higher rates of reporting attempted suicide than heterosexual students, the CDC said.

Those identifying as lesbian or gay were found to have nearly 1.9 times higher rates, identifying as bisexual nearly 3.3 times higher rates, and identifying as questioning 1.5 times higher rates compared to heterosexual students.

Meanwhile, when it came to suicidal thoughts and behaviors among male students, percentages were relatively stable between 2019 and 2021.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is conducted every other year and surveys thousands of high school-age children from public and private schools between grades 9 and 12 across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Although suicide is the 11th leading cause of death overall in the United States, it is the third among U.S. high school students between the ages 14 and 18, accounting for one-fifth of all deaths among this age group, the report said.

The authors said the findings in the report are consistent with trends before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rising rates of suicide risk among teen girls may be linked to how measures, such as social distancing and remote learning, may have increased students' social isolation and anxiety.

Common risk factors for suicide include a history of depression and other mental illness, bullying, loss of relationships, and social isolation, according to the CDC.

This undated stock photo shows a young woman sitting alone and covering her face with her hands.

The CDC team added that understanding why rates were stable among male students, even during an event such as the pandemic, "could yield insights into protective factors."

"A comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, which reduces risk and supports youths at increased risk, provides support to those at risk and can ultimately save lives," they wrote.

It comes after a report released earlier this year from the CDC showed teen girls were experiencing record-high levels of feelings of sadness and acts of violence.

Nearly three in five -- or 57% -- of girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 and the highest levels seen in the past decade, the data found.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week

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One-third of US teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021: CDC

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A new report from the CDC Thursday found the percentage of U.S. teen girls seriously considering suicide rose from 2019 to nearly one-third in 2021.

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Citation:
Sparks, S. D. (2022, March 8). Suicide is rising among younger students. here’s how schools can prevent tragedy. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/suicide-is-rising-among-younger-students-heres-how-schools-can-prevent-tragedy/2022/03

Link:
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/suicide-is-rising-among-younger-students-heres-how-schools-can-prevent-tragedy/2022/03Bulleted

Summary:

The thoughts of suicide begin early, even though numbers show the attempts begin at a later age.

Educating students on suicide awareness is providing resources is important to begin at Elementary level.

Reasons students are sad at such a young age- neglect, depression, divorce, unstable homes.

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If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
Teachers use a curriculum built around the dog to lead 5th graders though discussions of mental health, signs that they may have unhealthy feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and ways that they can both self-calm and find help for themselves or friends.

"A lot of adults view elementary school-aged kids as incapable of experiencing the level of emotional distress that could lead someone to consider suicide, but we know very objectively that's not true," said John Ackerman, a clinical pediatric psychologist and the suicide-prevention coordinator with the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Suicidal behavior among children can look significantly different from that among adolescents.

"Research shows now that young kids, as young as 5 or 6, understand that killing oneself leads to death, but they don't always understand the permanence of that," Ackerman said. "We know that young kids absolutely can be in deep, emotional pain. They can have a desire to die but not always fully understand the implications of that. So their behavior can be a lot more impulsive; moving from thought to action happens more swiftly."

Children with attention deficits or depression had a higher risk of suicide, but the National Institute of Mental Health found less than a third of children who die by suicide had a previously diagnosed mental illness. By contrast, about 40 percent of the children had family instability such as divorce, parent depression, or substance abuse, and a third of the children had experienced school disruptions-both problems that have worsened during the pandemic.

"Along with school shutdowns, ... the pandemic disrupted [parents'] livelihood, employment, and that family stability that younger children really need in their lives," said Ellyson Stout, the director of the Education Development Center's Suicide Prevention Resource Center. "So, you know, I think there's a lot of added stressors for younger populations."

Those stressors have heightened both the need and impetus to boost mental health supports and training for children and preadolescents, who historically have fewer school-based mental health supports than students in high schools. For example, in the first eight months of the pandemic alone, the CDC found the share of mental health emergencies-including suicide attempts, self-harm, and serious panic or depressive episodes-jumped by about a quarter for children 5 to 11 and nearly a third for those 12 to 17.

Communities of color and low-income communities have experienced disproportionate illness and financial instability during the pandemic and historically have had less access to mental health support. Suicides among children of color have risen disproportionately quickly both before and during the pandemic, prompting congressional concern. Compared to teenagers, preteens and younger children who die by suicide are more likely to be Black or male.

Averting early mental health issues

Nine states have enacted new suicide-prevention legislation involving schools since 2019, according to the Education Commission of the States, but only a few apply to younger children. Mississippi now requires all elementary and middle school teachers to receive training in children's mental health every two years, while Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin require public schools to include contact information for suicide prevention on all student-identification cards. Several states have also moved to allow students to take excused mental health days.

"I do think early-childhood screenings should be asking about self-harm and suicide," said Deanna Barch, a professor and the chair of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University. "Asking can reveal the need for intervention and supports for a child with such thoughts even when they might not appear to be clinically depressed."

"Not surprisingly because of their age, children tend to be less able to verbalize thoughts of not wanting to be alive," Ackerman said. "A lot of times, younger kids think they're going crazy. It's a source of shame for them that they've even had [a suicidal] thought. They don't understand what's going on and so they hide this."

Children experiencing suicidal ideation may talk about "not wanting to be around anymore" or "going away and not coming back" rather than explicitly mentioning hurting or killing themselves, he said. Even more often, they may say nothing at all but instead show themes of violence or death in play or experience somatic behaviors like anxiety and irritability, stomachaches, and headaches.

"In a school setting, and certainly in an elementary school setting, mental health distress or stress can come out in certain behavioral issues in those students," Stout said. "And we know from the evidence that that kind of acting out often receives some more-punitive response if the young person is a person of color."

Moreover, Stout noted that many teachers have experienced trauma, stress, and burnout in the last few years and "teachers who also have experienced trauma, I'm not sure they're as equipped to bring a trauma-informed lens to their work with kids. ... So for kids acting out, the adults in the school may not be prepared to respond as constructively as they need to."

Experts say adults need to talk about mental health risks

If conversations are held in a developmentally appropriate and sensitive way, "it's not distressing for children to have an adult ask about [suicide], but typically adults avoid this topic. So if an adult is willing to be a trusted support, then it allows children to not hide these thoughts," Ackerman said.

That's why, in addition to providing suicide-prevention curriculum to elementary and middle school students, the Wolcott district trained all staff, from teachers and paraprofessionals to bus drivers and custodians, on how to recognize signs of depression and suicidal ideation among children and ensure every student has a "trusted adult" at school listed in case of emotional distress.

"It's a gatekeeper program. If a student comes up and has suicidal ideation or is talking about self-harm, [staff] are not really doing the counseling, but it's for the staff to recognize some of the language and the concerns and then refer to a counselor or a school psychologist," said Kevin Hollis of the Wolcott public schools.

"You should train anybody that kids have access to, because kids don't necessarily go to a teacher," Hollis said. "They may feel more comfortable and have a relationship with a custodian or somebody in the cafeteria or the bus driver."

In a nationally representative survey of school and district leaders conducted in January and February, 1 in 4 told the EdWeek Research Center that their districts have begun or expanded suicide-prevention training for staff and teachers since the start of the pandemic.

Studies do show that one suicide can raise the risk of other suicides among children and teenagers who knew or identified with the person in the community. Experts say it is important for educators and school leaders to actively respond to the death and give students the chance to grieve and discuss it.

"The fear of [suicide] contagion often causes schools to sort of go silent after there's a suicide death in the community," Stout said. While experts say memorials should be brief and not sensationalize the way a student died, "the best response is to act as you would if a young person had died of a car crash or cancer; allow the collective grieving."

Educators also can take the opportunity to make students aware of how they can get help if they have similar feelings of hopelessness.

"Young people who are in that level of distress usually feel a lot of relief at being able to talk about suicide. So asking, 'Are you thinking about ending your life?' it opens a door to a young person being able to express what they're going through," Stout said. "I think we all intuitively don't want to go there and are worried that we might be introducing the concept, but talking about suicide does not cause suicide."

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Suicide is Rising Among Younger Students. Here's How Schools Can Prevent Tragedy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Teachers use a curriculum built around the dog to lead 5th graders though discussions of mental health, signs that they may have unhealthy feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and ways that they can both self-calm and find help for themselves or friends.

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Citation:
ASCA. (n.d.). The school counselor and suicide   prevention/awareness. The School Counselor and Suicide Prevention/Awareness - American School Counselor Association (ASCA). https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Suicide-Prevention-Awaren

Link:
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Suicide-Prevention-Awaren

Brief Summary of Resource:
This resource describes the role of the school counselor in suicide awareness and prevention. Through implementing awareness, school counselors can address and identify situations that may lead a student to suicide ideation. School counselors, teachers and school employees can gain awareness of these signs by participating in trainings.

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The School Counselor and Suicide Prevention/Awareness

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School counselors work to identify behavioral and social/emotional signs of suicide risk among their students and ensure prevention methods are in place. It is the school counselor's ethical and moral responsibility to report suspected suicide risk to legal guardians and the appropriate authorities.

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Slide #2: Summary of Working with Suicidal Students

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Slide #2: Summary of Working with Suicidal Students

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As counselors, teachers, and school employees, we have the opportunity to help save lives. Schools should be a safe place for students and we must be knowledgeable on suicide prevention. If we can give struggling students resources to address their feelings, these numbers we see today could decrease. School counselors are working hard to identify these signs in students behaviorally and emotionally. Counselors have many jobs that are important to focus on whether it be responding to student's needs or helping them plan post secondary, but with topics like this, working with students who are suicidal; it is important that counselor understand all legal guides that follow.

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Thank you everyone for taking the time to view my padlet. I am currently a first grade teacher working towards a master's degree in Professional School Counseling. My hopes are to graduate in the Spring of 2024 and be a School Counselor at the Elementary level. As a general education teacher I can only do so much, I would like to be a school counselor so that I can be a better resource for students, parents, and teachers. Over the years we have seen a rise in numbers dealing with student behavior in the public school setting. With a rise in negative behavior and our students hurting, suicide and suicide attempt has also increased in our youth. This legal guide describes working with suicidal students and is informative for all employees in the public school system.