Suicide Prevention

What is Suicide Prevention?

Suicide prevention is the intentional steps that LCSD is taking to create school cultures where students build resiliency, develop positive coping skills, reach out for help with mental health, and talk about suicide in a safe and healthy way.

Training and Prevention Practices

Connectedness between students, staff, and community is important for decreasing isolation and building a support system that can reduce suicide risk. Building relationships is our priority in schools: welcoming students into classrooms each day, supporting their health and safety, using Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports (PBIS), and modeling positive interactions and coping strategies.

The Suicide Prevention content we use with students are age-appropriate materials that include the importance of safe and healthy choices and coping strategies focused on resiliency building.

Suicide Prevention: Standard Components of School's Response

School personnel, parents/guardians, and students need to be confident that help is available if/when they raise concerns regarding suicidal behavior. Studies show students often know, but do not tell adults, about suicidal peers because they do not know how adults will respond, or they think adults cannot help.
Research has shown that talking about suicide or asking someone if they are feeling suicidal will NOT put the idea in their head or cause them to end their own life.
Regardless of how comprehensive suicide prevention and intervention may be in a community, not all suicidal behavior can be prevented.
Advanced planning is critical to providing an effective crisis response. Internal and external resources must be in place to address student issues and empower success.

For Students
For Staff

For Students

Our main mission is to increase mental health education for students. This will include and not be limited to: posters, flyers, student ID cards, brochures, using Sources of Strength and Character Strong/Purposeful People Curricula, and promoting mental health wellness in schools.

We recognize that connectedness with students, staff, and community is important to decrease isolation and build a support system which can reduce suicide risk. As a district, we will continue to hold building relationships as our utmost priority, welcoming students into our classrooms every morning; helping support their health and safety; reaching out through middle and high school advisories; using Positive Behavior and Intervention Strategies (PBIS); implementing the check in/check out (CICO) system; and modeling positive interactions and coping strategies.

The Suicide Prevention content are age-appropriate materials that include the importance of safe and healthy choices and coping strategies focused on resiliency building, and how to recognize risk factors and warning signs of mental health conditions and suicide in oneself and others. The content shall also include help-seeking strategies for oneself or others and how to engage school resources and refer friends for help. In addition, school staff shall provide supplemental small-group suicide prevention programming for students as it is not recommended to deliver any programming related to suicide prevention to a large group in an auditorium setting.

K-8 Schools will conduct the Character Strong assessment to screen the eight key social and emotional competencies of each student. The data will assist the district in developing and maintaining a universal Tier 1 SEL program that will meet student needs and state standards.
Elementary Schools will be responsible to implement Character Strong Curriculum/Purposeful People as Tier I & II supports. School staff have also been trained and have access to Sources of Strength to supplement the Character Strong curriculum. These curriculums address social emotional learning, character development, and building resiliency. It is the responsibility of the building to schedule this training and integrate this curriculum into the classrooms and school culture. Additionally, school counselors and teachers use the Health and Safety curriculum from Character Strong, which is implemented in all classrooms.
Middle and High School will be responsible to implement an evidence- based Tier I SEL curriculum that addresses social emotional learning, character development, and building resiliency in youth. It is the responsibility of the building to schedule this training and integrate this curriculum into the classrooms and school culture.
High School health and wellness departments, with the oversight of building administration, will develop a scope and sequence to include implementation of the QPR youth curriculum, which increases knowledge of signs of depression and suicide, increases understanding of attitudes and behaviors that can hinder help seeking, increases understanding of steps to seek help for self and others, and increases knowledge of “crisis contacts” at the school for immediate help. Linn County Health Services will provide technical support and assistance with this program if asked at (541) 967-3819.
Middle School health and wellness departments, with the oversight of building administration, will develop a scope and sequence to include implementation of a suicide awareness and prevention curriculum, which increases knowledge of signs of depression and suicide, increases understanding of attitudes and behaviors that can hinder help seeking, increases understanding of steps to seek help for self and others, and increases knowledge of “crisis contacts” at the school for immediate help. Linn County Health Services will provide technical support and assistance with this program if asked at (541) 967-3819.
Middle and High School will partner with other community agencies (i.e Jackson Street Youth Services) to continue providing Tier II groups for targeted youth, using trauma informed, evidence-based practices that build on protective factors.

For Staff

All school staff members should promote students’ values and mental health awareness. They are required to read LCSD’s Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention plan in its entirety. If they have questions regarding this material; they can ask their supervisor, Sandi Cox (District Mental Health Coordinator), or Mindy Hoeckle (Family Support Liaison).

All school staff members should familiarize themselves with the Crisis Response Core Team and crisis team members in their school to access during a suicide intervention or emergency.

All school staff at every level will be expected to participate in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), or similar training on alternate years, offered by a certified district employee trainer or Linn County Health Services employee with a live instructor option or online training if a staff member cannot attend the in-person workshop. This training is designed for staff who interact with students who could disclose suicidal ideation to them.
Suicide awareness and prevention training is required every year to familiarize themselves with the referral process and have basic understanding of how to interact with a student who is experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Additionally, Administrators at every level will be required to be trained in QPR. They will also be expected to be trained every 5 years in:
- Youth Mental Health First Aid (8 hours)
- ASIST (2days) to help support safe messaging and safety planning for students and staff
- CONNECT (6 hours), a postvention training about safe messaging after a suicide.
Additionally, School Counselors / Dean of Students will also be required to be trained in Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) as part of the suicide screening process LCSD uses for screening purposes. In addition they will also be expected to be trained every 5 years in:
- CONNECT (6 hours), a postvention training about safe messaging after a suicide.
- ASIST (2 days) to help support safe messaging and safety planning for students and staff.