Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

Certification Resources Scott Poland conducted several in-person trainings on suicide prevention in the spring and summer of 2019, which personnel from every county school district attended. He also conducted two webinars in the fall of 2019. Hopefully, there will be more suicide prevention trainings scheduled regularly. The Florida Office of School Safety and FDOE sponsored these trainings. Florida S.T.E.P.S. Tools 14a, 14b, and 14c (located in the intervention section), provide more information on screening assessments. S.T.E.P.S. provides an example of both the brief and long form of the C-SSRS and the SAFE-T. With the new legislative requirements placed on schools surrounding student and school safety, it is our hope that this toolkit will give school mental health professionals practical guidance about how to assess students at risk of suicide. Florida is emphasizing prevention, as Casey DeSantis, Florida’s first lady, has made youth suicide prevention and student mental health a priority, and we are excited and encouraged by this development. Clarification on Threat to Self vs. Others Senate Bill 7030 requires school threat assessment teams to be trained to conduct behavioral threat assessments. Specifically, these assess a student’s threat of violence toward others and toward themselves. It is important for school personnel to recognize that most suicidal students are not thinking of harming others, and that a suicidal student not feel that they are in trouble or likely to be disciplined at school. Here are some things to look for when conducting every suicide assessment: • Are they blaming others? • Do they appear angry with others? • Are they the victim of bullying and want to retaliate? • Is there a history of violence or violent threats toward others? The FDOE-recommended suicide instruments do not include questions about thoughts of harming others. Some SMHPs have always included questions of harming others in suicide assessment, while others have not. If a suicidal student talks about harming others, then district procedures for responding to threats of violence toward others must be followed. Florida S.T.E.P.S.