by, Sheena Lall, Director of Learning Innovation and Social Emotional Competency, Talent Development Secondary
The Sad Truth
- Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teens and young adults, ages 10-34 (NCHS Data Brief, 2023).
- Nine percent of high school students attempted suicide in 2023 (CDC, 2024). This percentage is highest among females (13%), Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (15%), Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native (11%), and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender teens (20%).
- From 1999 to 2020, over 47,000 Americans between the ages 10 and 19 lost their lives to suicide and there have been sharp increases year by year (Ormiston et. al, 2024).
- Between 2011 and 2020, suicides by overdose jumped 12.6% per year among female adolescents (Ormiston et. al, 2024).
- Suicides using guns rose 5.3% per year during 1999 to 2020 among boys, it increased even more rapidly (7.8% per year) among girls (Ormiston et. al, 2024).
- Between 2012 and 2020, suicide deaths using firearms jumped on average 14.5% per year among Black adolescents, with similar trends noted among Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian American adolescents (Ormiston et. al, 2024).
Schools Can Help
Drivers of student mental health challenges are many and varied. To name just one, emerging research is shedding light on the negative impact that social media can have on the developing minds of our youth. Ranging from body image issues across genders to cyberbullying, the social emotional implications associated with unhealthy engagement with social media are becoming more clear. It’s also becoming more clear that schools and educators have the opportunity to do something about it. School climates that encourage a sense of belonging – ensuring students feel accepted, respected, and valued for who they are – can combat the isolating and shaming influences of social media.
Student success systems offer a student-centered, actionable framework for schools to identify students in need of support, and provide the connections children need. Focusing on efforts to improve agency, belonging, and connectedness are the most direct ways that a school can have an impact on a student’s mental health. Alongside the use of evidence-based predictive indicators like attendance, behavior, and coursework, school teams can identify the exact students represented in the above grim numbers. A supportive team of adults examining holistic, real-time, actionable data to identify root-causes and design effective interventions that foster school connectedness can create the sense of belonging that could prevent a suicide.
Students are connected to school when…
- They believe there is an adult who knows and cares about them as a person
- They have a supportive peer group
- They engage in activities they see as helping others
- They feel welcome in school for who they are
All of these aspects of school connectedness are measurable and actionable by schools but are currently not systematically collected or acted on in most schools.
The GRAD Partnership offers a collection of resources for understanding the dimensions of student agency, belonging, and connectedness, their relationship to student success, and steps schools can take to enhance each. A EdResearch for Action brief written by four GRAD Partnership members explores evidence on strategies to build a sense of school connectedness and engagement among all students. And a new brief developed in collaboration with NPSS includes a number of tips and resources for leveraging student voice to improve schools and increase student connection.
As schools work to create an environment that supports student mental health across the board, knowing the warning signs and risk factors for suicide, speaking directly to a child about how they are feeling, and listening with a non-judgmental ear can go a long way.
What to Look For
Some warning signs to look out for include:
- Talking about feeling hopeless or trapped
- Talking about being a burden to others or not belonging
- Isolation from friends and family
- Problems eating or sleeping
- Mood swings
- Reckless behavior
- Talking about suicide or wanting to die
- Writing or drawing about suicide or acting it out in play
- Dropping grades
- Increased use of alcohol or drugs
- Giving away belongings
Other risk factors for suicide include: family history of suicide, bullying, access to firearms and pills, struggling with a mental health disorder or alcohol or substance abuse disorder.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide please call the suicide prevention hotline at 988. You are not alone and your life is worth living.
Source: Reflections on School Connectedness During Suicide Prevention Month (gradpartnership.org)
