School district launching new efforts aimed at preventing student suicides

The Montana Standard

With support from the state suicide prevention office, the Butte school district is putting in place a range of evidence-based programming to help protect students both immediately and in the future. Some of these efforts are in direct response to the recent suicide deaths of three students, such as interventions in schools by the district’s Crisis Response Team (made up of school counselors, administrators, and psychologists) and a series of community-based meetings. The state’s suicide prevention coordinator, Karl Rosston, has made several visits to Butte to provide information and give educational presentations to teachers, service groups, and others. To strengthen prevention in the future, teachers have received training in the QPR approach – Question, Persuade, Refer — and have also been provided with Signs of Suicide (SOS) kits to help identify students who may need mental health support. Counselors in the district will take a two-day Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, paid for by the state. Rosston hopes also to increase the number of teachers in the district using the PAX Good Behavior Game, a classroom management program that teaches first- and second-graders coping and conflict management skills and has been shown to reduce the incidence of negative behaviors later in life. The district is reaching out to parents with a mailing of 4,000 copies of Parents as Partners: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Parents.

Spark Extra! Learn more about the PAX Good Behavior Game.