Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

46. Consider this scenario: the day after a student suicide, friends arrive at school wearing T-shirts with a picture of the suicide victim on them. Should a principal allow students to wear those T-shirts at school or send them home to change? T his scenario creates a dilemma for the school administrator. The After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools (which I helped develop) from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center is an excellent guide for postvention, and I do not believe an administrator could be criticized for following the recommendation. They could be criticized for not following the recommendations. The toolkit cannot possibly answer every question, but it does stress striving to treat all the deaths the same. If T-shirts with pictures of other students from your school—who have died—have been worn before, then I would allow the T-shirts today. I recommended meeting with students and letting them know that you acknowledge that this is how they are expressing their emotions and they may wear the T-shirts today, but you expect them to wear normal school attire the following day. This is an opportunity for personnel, such as the school counselor, social worker, or school psychologist to sit down with the affected students help them with their and grief and guide them toward memorials, such as living memorials that raise money and awareness to prevent future suicides. 47. As a counselor in an elementary school, I am experiencing more and more fourth- and fifth- grade students making suicidal statements. Do I need to take it seriously every single time? T he short answer is absolutely yes, take it seriously every single time and ask the student direct questions about suicidal thoughts, actions, and plans and notify their parents each time. I recognize this is time-consuming and frustrating, and I wish younger children could say what it is that is bothering them and not think it’s necessary to say I’m going to kill myself to get the attention of adults. In my previous school district, I responded to the death by suicide of a nine-year-old boy. I’ll never forget his father saying to me he tried to hang himself last week and he thought he had hidden all the ropes. I did not want to make the father feel any worse than he already felt but, obviously, I thought to myself I wish he had reached out for help for his suicidal son immediately. There is national research indicating that suicide rates have increased for younger children under 10. 48. I know there have been a number of lawsuits brought by parents against schools after the suicide of their child, with parents believing that bullying at school that was not addressed, was a proximate cause of the suicide. Have you been involved in these lawsuits and what have the courts concluded? I have followed this very closely and been involved as an expert witness in several of these cases. Several school districts have settled cases of this type out of court. I am not aware of a single court that has found a school liable in this type of case. In 2012, I was involved on the side of the school district in Myers vs. Blue Springs School District. I believed the school district did nothing wrong, but the case was settled out of court for $500,000. A 2013 case in Kentucky, Patton vs. Bickford, went all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court but the school district was not found liable. I was also involved as an expert witness on the side of the plaintiff in a 2011 case, Lance vs. Lewisville Independent School District, where a nine-year- old special education student—believed to be the victim of bullying—hung himself at school. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit did not find the school district liable. The court concluded that no special relationship existed as Montana Lance was not incarcerated, involuntarily committed, or in foster care. 165