Suicide Awareness Gets a Boost

Crystal Lake Community High School District 155 and the Crystal Lake Police Department are stepping up efforts to continue teen suicide awareness and prevention among the student body.

The school district has a three-pronged approach for staff awareness that includes developing and coordinating core messages, providing comprehensive mental health information about teens, and information-sharing with students, parents and mental health services.

This year, the police department will increase its involvement with the district's initiatives by involving existing student resource officers more directly with school suicide prevention committees, interaction with students in classrooms discussing the topic from a police perspective and involvement with the district's Parent University.

"We would work with the school social workers, staff, teachers and mental health professionals to get the word out regarding suicide prevention," said Chief Deputy Eugene Lowery.

Lowery added that the initiative is designed to prevent loss of life, not only from suicide, but from other means such as the choking game – where participants try to get a high by cutting off oxygen to the brain by choking themselves or their friends.

With 7,000 students in five high schools in the district—just over half the high school students in McHenry County—the school district feels the need to respond to current trends by amping up existing programs or creating new ones.

"If you look back over time, what I see are cycles of behavior and different trend lines – a concern we always hold," said District Superintendent Dr. Jill Hawk. "We focus appropriately in prevention and in equipping our staff to make sure we don't have a lot of suicides."

Hawk is mindful that many of the district's staff are not mental health professionals equipped to deal with the issues students in need may be facing. However, educating them on what steps to take in the event a student is threatening personal harm, and sharing information on awareness, can go a long way towards preventing tragedies. And including community groups such as the police department in expanded roles will help get the message out.

Hawk pointed out that the stepping up efforts to keep administrators, faculty and staff up-to-date on suicide prevention and awareness was not due to increased threats of suicides among the student body or even actual deaths.  And while there have been some reported suicides recently in Barrington, the district was planning to increase focus on the issue in schools before these incidents.

The district's position is that prevention is key. The more it knows the better it can help students in crisis, so it keeps current on new information and makes program adjustments where needed.  

"Even the loss of one child is one too many," Hawk said.

McHenry County Coroner Marlene Lantz seemed to notice a cycle when it comes to teen suicide as well. She worries those affected by the current economy will turn to suicide as a solution to their problems and teens are particularly vulnerable.

"There's peer pressure, parents are arguing more because of money things, then the kids feel the pressure—I think it's going to be a trickle down effect," she said.