Education Week - March 8, 2023 - 4

How Districts Can Respond to a Student's Suicide
By Caitlynn Peetz
When a child dies by suicide,
schools are often tasked with leading
students through the grief that inevitably
permeates the classroom.
It's a particularly challenging crisis
to navigate. Leaders must address
stigma, complex emotions, and death,
while also working to prevent other
deaths by suicide.
Though not a new problem, districts
across the country are struggling to
keep pace with students' heightened
mental health needs, a problem only
exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Youth
depression rates are on the
rise, and suicide is the second leading
cause of death for children aged 10-24.
The most recent CDC Youth Risk
Behavior survey, released in February,
showed 22 percent of high school students-nearly
one in four-seriously
considered attempting suicide during
the past year; 18 percent made a suicide
plan; and 10 percent attempted
suicide. LGBTQ+ students were
most likely to report having suicidal
thoughts and behaviors.
Unfortunately, many schools and
districts will be faced with responding
to a student's death by suicide. And
because youth are the most prone to a
phenomenon known as " suicide contagion " -when
exposure to suicide or
suicidal behavior influences others to
attempt suicide-it is critical that they
respond appropriately.
That can prove challenging with
such emotionally charged and difficult-to-understand
deaths.
" We have to overcome this level
of shame and blame and guilt that
exists around suicide, " said Alexandra
Karydi, director of the Suicide
Prevention Resource Center's States
and Communities Initiative. " It's not
a character defect of the person who
died, and it's not a character defect of
people who are not able to help. It's a
health condition, like any other health
condition. "
A district in New Jersey, for example,
came under fire in February for its
response to a student's suicide, with
its superintendent ultimately resigning
amid the backlash.
Fourteen-year-old Adriana Kuch
died by suicide early this month just
days after she was attacked in school.
The attack was recorded and shared
on social media, and Adriana's father
has said the emotional toll was overwhelming
for the teen.
In the days following Adriana's
death, the superintendent, Triantafillos
Parlapanides, made disparaging
comments about the child and
her family to the Daily Mail, a British
tabloid. He resigned a day after the
article appeared.
Experts on youth suicide prevention
and postvention-the response
to suicide-say it is critical that school
and district leaders are prepared to respond
empathetically and appropriately
to students' deaths, which can
be tremendously difficult for other
children to process.
It can be helpful to have staff participate
in suicide prevention training
and to have policies in place addressing
what should happen if a teacher
suspects a student is considering suicide,
how information is shared with
the community if a student dies, and
any parameters or restrictions around
memorial displays and events.
In interviews with Education Week,
experts shared some tips and best
practices for districts to consider.
Don't glamorize or fixate on how
the student died
Unlike other deaths, youth suicides
come with the risk of " contagion, "
and students with mental health concerns
could be at heightened risk for
suicide immediately following a classmate's
suicide, so it's important to
avoid glamorizing suicide or idealizing
the person who died, Karydi said.
Administrators should talk about the
student in the same way they would
talk about any student who dies.
Avoid making the announcement in
a large assembly or over the school's
intercom, said Stephen Brock, school
psychology program coordinator at
California State University, Sacramento,
and lead author of the National
Association of School Psychologists'
school safety and crisis response
training. Notifications should be
made in small groups when possible,
like in homeroom classes.
Schools should immediately mobilize
a " crisis response team " to take
the lead on the response. The team
should include administrators, counselors,
social workers, psychologists,
nurses, and school resource officers,
if available.
Validate feelings and give kids
time to grieve
Grief manifests differently for everyone,
and it's important to give
students space to grieve in whatever
way feels natural. Some may react
very emotionally, while others might
withdraw.
Regardless, nobody should tell
students how they " should " react, or
minimize their feelings, Karydi said.
" You have to give people space to
grieve, and you can't shut them down
with toxic positivity like, 'It's going
to be OK,' " Karydi said. " Feeling sad
after somebody dies is really normal,
and you don't need to squash that
right away. In fact, people who have
time to heal and feel their community
helping them heal, heal better. "
Private spaces should be set up for
students to talk with counselors or
other trained mental health professionals,
but school staff shouldn't
assume students will seek out a
therapist because they're feeling
sad. Schools should set up information
about available mental health
resources in a visible area.
In the days following a student's
suicide, schools should share information
through in-person discussions
and handouts about suicide,
4 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 8, 2023 | www.edweek.org
Don't try to 'fix it' too quickly
When someone, especially a child,
dies by suicide, people often instinctively
look for something to do that
can " fix " the problem, Karydi said.
Districts might feel pulled to immediately
roll out new training or
awareness campaigns. But if they do
so without leaving time for the school
community to process the recent
death, it could be retraumatizing.
" People will come in for the training
and we'll start saying, 'This is
what you can do to help somebody,'
and all of a sudden, we're retraumatizing
a whole group of people that are
like, 'Oh, I should have done this,' and
begin blaming themselves, " Karydi
said. " Wait for the shock to pass and
really work on postvention. When
your people are ready, when it's time,
you can start working on additional
prevention efforts. "
Avoid emotional events and
memorials at school
It's important, experts said, to have
a policy about memorialization before
including coping strategies students
can use when intense emotions come
up. Those strategies include breathing
exercises, exercise, and writing down
a list of people to turn to for support.
Students may need help identifying
their emotions, and it can be helpful for
adults to ask them questions such as,
" What is your biggest concern about
the immediate future? " or " What
would help you feel safer right now? "
Grief lasts longer than the immediate
shock of death, and some students
will likely need additional support
longer term.
It's also important to explain to children
that mental illnesses are treatable
and that there is nothing wrong
with receiving help.
" It's a combination of trying to reduce
risk of future suicides and intervening
and supporting and helping people cope
with the losses, " Brock said.
a student death occurs, and that policy
should be consistent, regardless of
the cause of death.
Schools should consider having a
time limit on how long memorials-
such as displays of flowers, cards, or
other items left by the deceased student's
locker-will remain in place.
Experts generally recommend that
memorials be set up in areas that
students can avoid if they don't wish
to see them and that they be left in
place for approximately five days,
or until after the funeral. The school
could then offer the items to the student's
family.
A message could be posted near
the memorial in the days leading up
to its removal to notify people it will
soon be taken down and given to the
family to prevent any assumptions
that school officials have removed it
disrespectfully, Karydi said.
Schools should also avoid creating
and encouraging students to wear
things like T-shirts memorializing
the student. That could unintentionally
glamorize suicide deaths, Brock
said.
" We don't want to bring undue
attention to the loss and give vulnerable
youth the idea that dying is
the way to get a lot of attention, " he
said. " Avoid permanent memorials
that would potentially romanticize or
glorify the loss, and instead, strive to
focus on living memorials that would
address the challenges associated
with suicide, which could be things
like implementing a suicide prevention
curriculum, in memory of the
deceased. "
Maintain routines
School leaders should encourage
the family of the deceased student to
hold the funeral off school grounds
and outside of school hours. That allows
for students to maintain their
school day routines, Brock said. The
school should remain open if the funeral
happens during school hours,
and it should follow normal proceWe
have to
overcome this
level of shame
and blame and
guilt that exists
around suicide.
It's not a character
defect of the
person who died,
and it's not a
character defect
of people who are
not able to help.
It's a health
condition, like
any other health
condition.
ALEXANDRA KARYDI
Director of the Suicide
Prevention Resource Center's
States and Communities
Initiative
Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/iStock
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - March 8, 2023

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