I have been watching the to do about Safe Schools and Welcoming Schools training with great interest. I am a retired Fayette County teacher and have witnessed the trials of students first hand. I believe the opponents of such training have overlooked a very major issue, and that is the suicide rates amongst our young people.
Suicide prevention has long been a part of in-service training for those in education. Luckily I only needed that training to help a child just a few times, but was so thankful that I was sensitive to what was going on with them and was able to be the first step in intervention to help these kids to see another day.
Citizens of Fayette County, I beseech you to put aside whatever your polarizing views of this topic might be and focus only on the welfare of our young people.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-24, right behind accidents. All the dread diseases combined come in a distant third. Daily in this nation we average 5,240 suicide attempts by students in grades 7-12.
For LGB youth the rate of suicide attempts quadruples. That rate again doubles when these youth are from highly rejecting circumstances. For transgender people we find that 30 percent of this population reports at least one suicide attempt and 42 percent report self destructive behaviors such as cutting.
When this is coupled with the bullying these students endure, we find an even greater increase. According to a Yale study, students who are bully victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. Girls may be at an even higher risk according to this study.
I commend FCBOE for implementing this training. According to a CDC study, “For youth to thrive in schools and communities, they need to feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe and supported. A positive school climate has been associated with decreased depression, suicidal feelings, substance use, and unexcused school absences among LGB students.”
Keep up the good work, FCBOE, and continue to strive to do the right thing for ALL of our students.
Jennifer Ritter
FCBOE educator, retired
Peachtree City, Ga.
