One element of any school’s suicide prevention efforts should be a written crisis plan that includes prevention, intervention and postvention strategies. Suicidal behavior is considerably more common than bomb threats and earthquakes and deserves specific protocols. A school should have a plan for ensuring that teachers and school staff are trained (and occasionally refreshed) to recognize the symptoms for depression and the warning signs for suicide. In the event of a student death by suicide, a crisis plan provides clarity about such things as how to support grieving peers and how to handle the media. A crisis plan needs to include procedures for assessing and referring a suicidal student to help.
YSPP staff will gladly provide technical assistance to school staff who are interested in developing or enhancing their crisis response plan. The State of Maine and the University of South Florida have each developed school crisis response plans that have been reviewed and placed on the Best Practices Registry.
Steps in Enhancing Crisis Response Plans
If it is decided that the focus should be on postvention, develop answers/strategies to the following checklist of tasks:
- Who will be the contact for the bereaved family?
- Will we utilize a building or district crisis team? If so, what training have they had?
- Who will inform the faculty and staff of the student’s suicide? How much information will they receive?
- Who will develop a script that each faculty member will be asked to read at a specific time during the day? How much information will the students receive?
- Who will inform the parents of the death? What information will they receive and how: email, letter home in US Mail or home via their student?
- Where will we set up a “safe room” for students to gather? Who will staff that room?
- Will substitutes be available if a teacher’s grief interferes with teaching?
- Will someone in the building or at the district handle media inquiries?
- How will other “high-risk” students be identified and referred to counseling services?
- How will we handle sticky situations, like a request for a memorial, or the student’s locker, or a story in the school newspaper?
If it is decided that the focus should be on intervention, develop answers/strategies to the following checklist of tasks:
- Are staff trained in the signs and symptoms of depression and the warning signs for suicide?
- Are staff comfortable sharing their potentially vague concerns about a student who might be suicidal?
- Who is the designated person(s) that suicidal threats and attempts are reported?
- Are the designated person(s) competent to assess and refer suicidal students?
- What documentation is required to be completed regarding a suicidal student? Where is that documentation stored? Who can read it? Should an administrator formally review the assessment and intervention decisions?
- What is our primary resource for emergency psychiatric services?
- Do we have an updated list of community resources? Who is responsible for updating each year?
- How/when do parents get notified of the student’s suicidal behavior?
- How do we handle the suicidal student who asks that their parent not be notified?
- What do we do when we assess that the parents are unresponsive to our suicide concerns? How do we respond when the parents are unavailable or unreachable?
- If a student’s suicidal behavior results in hospitalization, what is our process for re-integrating him/her back into classes and student life?
If it is decided that the focus should be on prevention, develop answers/strategies to the following checklist of tasks:
- How are students being educated on the warning signs for depression/suicide as well as helpful intervention strategies?
- Would most students know where to get help if they were worried about a suicidal friend?
- What resources on anxiety, depression, suicide prevention, and grief/loss do we have in our school library?
- Do most staff – including front office staff – have some training in suicide awareness?
- How often should staff training be offered? Who should conduct the training?
- What do staff and faculty know about requests for confidentiality around suicide?
- Are the administration, staff and faculty clear about the school’s legal rights and obligations in dealing with a suicidal student?
- When policies related to suicide are written and/or changed, how should they be disseminated?
