Recent Scholars Academy Magnet for Business and Law graduate, Chris Kane conducted research this past year for his Senior Capstone Research Project to determine if school districts are actually training teachers to recognize the warning signs of depressive disorders, or suicide, as currently required by federal law. Kane sent an online survey to a randomly selected group of students at a high school, which was designed to determine if students actually received any help or assistance with their depressive disorder or with their suicidal thoughts. A similar survey was sent to teachers to find out if they were being trained to recognize the common warning signs. Of the teachers that responded to the survey, 75% stated that they received no type of training in regards to recognizing the warning signs of depression among their students, and 52.5% stated that they received no training to recognize the warning signs of suicide. In 2014, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide is the second leading cause of death among the ages of 10-24 year-olds. The first leading cause of death is accidents (unintended injury). From these findings, Kane asserts that there is a definite problem-both legally, and in regard to the safety of children. Additionally, exactly one of out of every two respondents claimed that they had considered or had possibly considered suicide themselves. With suicide being the second leading cause of death, some course of action needs to be done to hopefully prevent future cases of suicides. Assuring that all teachers receive the required training to be aware of warning signs is vital to suicide prevention.
Recent Scholars Academy Magnet for Business and Law graduate, Chris Kane conducted research this past year for his Senior Capstone Research Project to determine if school districts are actually training teachers to recognize the warning signs of depressive disorders, or suicide, as currently required by federal law. Kane sent an online survey to a randomly selected group of students at a high school, which was designed to determine if students actually received any help or assistance with their depressive disorder or with their suicidal thoughts. A similar survey was sent to teachers to find out if they were being trained to recognize the common warning signs. Of the teachers that responded to the survey, 75% stated that they received no type of training in regards to recognizing the warning signs of depression among their students, and 52.5% stated that they received no training to recognize the warning signs of suicide. In 2014, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide is the second leading cause of death among the ages of 10-24 year-olds. The first leading cause of death is accidents (unintended injury). From these findings, Kane asserts that there is a definite problem-both legally, and in regard to the safety of children. Additionally, exactly one of out of every two respondents claimed that they had considered or had possibly considered suicide themselves. With suicide being the second leading cause of death, some course of action needs to be done to hopefully prevent future cases of suicides. Assuring that all teachers receive the required training to be aware of warning signs is vital to suicide prevention.
