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This legal and ethical guide is a reference tool for school counselors.  The topic covered is student suicide.    I choose this topic because I have a student on my campus that has shown depressive/suicidal symptoms and has started self-harming as a way to deal with gender issues and family problems.  School counselors must ensure our student's mental and physical needs are met.  I feel that signs of suicide should be reported to parents immediately so tier 3 intervention can begin. Tiered intervention is currently in place, but I want to know the topic's ethical and legal implications.

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Tiffany Rickman, High School Counselor/504 Coordinator
https://www.honeygroveisd.net/26999_1

Tiffany Rickman is a colleague of mine at Honey Grove ISD.  She is a high school counselor and previously worked as a DEAP and Middle School Counselor.  She also spent many years working as a juvenile probation officer.  Tiffany feels this guide is vital to counselors as a quick legal reference to guide decision-making when dealing with a potential suicidal or self-harming student.

Tiffany recently attended an AS+K Suicide workshop through our district service center after counseling students in middle school who were self-harming and potentially suicidal. She felt additional training was essential to know strategies to help and current trends.

A few best practices when dealing with the situation she experienced and overall, according to Tiffany, would be:

keep an open line of communication with the student

a no-harm contract

continue contact with parents

Tiffany shared that she feels on our campus that self-harm is more of a growing trend than suicide ideation. She can see the potential of students escalating self-harm to something worse is a risk we could face if students do not receive counseling to stop harming themselves.  Tiffany shared that counselors could see themselves facing legal suits in this situation, just like student suicide.

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Walsh, M. (2020, December 30) Federal appeals court lets lawsuit proceed against educators in student's suicide. Education Week, https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/federal-appeals-court-lets-lawsuit-proceed-against-educators-in-students-suicide/2020/12

This article is important to the topic of student suicide because it involved a "government immunity" claim and repeated bullying. The court's opinion was ruled against the school administrators because the student had been bullied since first grade and the school did not continue to inform the parents of the bullying incidents (Walsh, 2020).

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Sparks, S. (2022, March 1). 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

According to Sparks (2022) suicide is on the rise among children as young as five years old (Sparks, 2022).  The article identified the following potential reasons for the rise:

less support for mental health provided at school

effects of the pandemic such as school disruption/shutdowns

family instability

less mental health support due to color or income level

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Tracy, Kelly (2022, January 28) Lawsuit claims Clay County schools withheld information about child's well-being before student attempted suicide. First Coast News.

This article covers a lawsuit filed by a twelve year old student's parents after the child attempted suicide on two separate occasions in the school bathroom. The school allegedly failed to notify the parents after the student's first attempted suicide in the school bathroom failed. The student attempted suicide a second time and then the school notified the parents. The parents were also not aware their child was seeing the school counselor for gender identity issues.

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Slide 6- Original Source of Statutory Law

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Slide 6- Original Source of Statutory Law

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State -Tex.Ed Code §33.006 (B)

School counselors must help oversee the school's comprehensive developmental guidance program that addresses the needs of all students including special population groups at risk of dropping out, becoming addicted to drugs /alcohol, gang members, or committing suicide.

Federal- Sanford v. Stiles, Civil Action No. 03-CV-5698 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 10, 2004)

In this case, seen before the US Court of Appeals Michael Stiles's mother was suing the school counselor because he committed suicide. He had previously written a note to a past girlfriend where he made a suicidal reference.  The girl went to the counselor, Mrs. Stiles. Stiles pulled Michael and followed the suicide referral process outlined by her school district. He did not seem truly
suicidal so she dismissed the issue. The court ruled in favor of the counselor because she followed the school guidelines and performed due diligence.

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Slide 7- Original Source of Administrative Law

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Slide 7- Original Source of Administrative Law

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State- Texas Education Code (TEC), §21.451(d)

This administrative code requires suicide prevention training to be provided to new and existing employees yearly.

Federal- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

HIPPA is a federal law that protects the student's right to privacy regarding health information. It would prohibit releasing personal information to anyone public or without educational interest requiring the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. This law would protect a student attempting or committing suicide to be identified publically without parent consent.

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Slide 8- Original Source of Constitutional Law

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Slide 8- Original Source of Constitutional Law

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State- Texas Const. Title 6. chap. 137 § 137.005

This chapter of the Texas constitution protects care providers from liability of omission if the act was in good faith.

Federal- U.S. Const. amend. XIV.

The Fourteenth Amendment offers every citizen equal protection under the law. This case has been cited for assisted suicide.

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Federal US Supreme Court -  42 U.S.C. § 1983

Under this code, educators can be sued for failure to protect the constitutional rights of students under their care.

State -   Wyke v. Polk County School Board, 129 F.3d 560 (11th Cir.1997).

In this case, a thirteen-year-old committed suicide. He had attempted suicide twice prior at school. The school failed to take the incident seriously and did not contact the parent or proceed with any counseling other than reading a bible verse to the student regarding suicide. The courts ruled the school was not liable for the death.

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Slide 10- Local and Administrative Law/Policy/Rule

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Slide 10- Local and Administrative Law/Policy/Rule

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The following reference is to a public charter school.  I chose to include this particular resource because my school district does not have a policy outlined in the employee handbook or Campus Improvement Plan addressing student suicide.  This is the most thorough policy I found.  It includes:

definitions of key terms

prevention practices

referral guidelines

when/if situations and protocol for each scenario

re-entry guidelines

resources

identification protocol

suicide rating scale

student support plan

student emergency release

Vista Norte Public Charter School (2020) School policy on suicide prevention
https://vistanortecharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Vista-Norte-School-Policy-on-Suicide-Prevention-Revised-August-18-2020.pdf

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Suicide is a very serious issue in public schools today.  According to Sparks (2022) the rate of suicide among 5 to 11 year old children has risen from 2013 to 2020 on a 15% average (Sparks, 2022, p.2).  School counselors have an obligation to the students they serve to inform and if needed find outside resources to support students at risk or contemplating suicide.  I believe that the immediate contact with parents is a school counselors ethical duty.  The following are the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) standard as it applies to suicide:

ASCA A.1.h, 2022- the counselor should respect the students confidentiality by balance it with the rights of the parents that have the absolute right to be their child's guiding voice (ASCA, 2022).

References:
American School Counselor Association. (2022). ASCA Ethical Standards for school counselors. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/44f30280-ffe8-4b41-9ad8-f15909c3d164/EthicalStandards.pdf

Sparks, S. (2022, March, 1). 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

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Slide 12- Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

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Slide 12- Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

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I can personally connect to this topic because I have dealt with a student that had previously been a "cutter".  She never got professional help even though her parents were made aware of the cutting.  Her parent are now divorcing and her behavior has become more depressive and I am concerned the cutting can escalate quickly to more extreme ideations.  I have contacted the parents again (at her request) and her dad is now following through with TCHATT services while she is at school.  This topic is very important to me due to the statistics I have read during my research.

Me calling the parents brings up the ethical dilemma regarding confidentiality to the student. According to the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) A.2.f the counselor has to balance the rights of the parents to know over the student's rights (ASCA, 2022).

American School Counseling Association. (2022). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. https://schoolcounselor.org/About-School-Counseling/Ethical-Legal-Responsibilities/ASCA-Ethical-Standards-for-School-Counselors-(1)

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Slide 13- Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

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Slide 13- Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

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As a school counselor facing the possiblity of a suicidal student the following would be ethical and legal recommendations for consideration:

prior mental health interactions with the student

complete a suicide checklist

get parents involved

if high risk consult district counseling team or crisis team