Senate approves bill allowing schools to offer yearly suicide awareness and prevention training

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Kay Floyd has won unanimous approval for Senate Bill 175, allowing schools to offer suicide awareness and prevention training on a yearly basis.  Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, passed legislation in 2021 mandating training every two years, but since has decided to give schools an additional option to do the program yearly.  The measure was approved on Monday.

“When I ran my bill two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had released data showing suicide had become the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24,” Floyd said.  “Since then, we’ve learned that depression and suicidal thoughts among children and teens worsened during the pandemic.  My legislation this year simply makes it clear that our schools can offer this free and effective suicide prevention and awareness training more frequently if they choose.”

Floyd pointed out the material for the training is provided by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services at no cost to Oklahoma school districts.

“One of the most popular training programs available only takes an hour to complete, but that one hour could give teachers and staff the knowledge they need to better identify students who may be thinking of suicide before it’s too late,” Floyd said.

SB 175 now moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.  The House principal author is Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan.

CDC: Suicide is Third Leading Cause of Death for Young People

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From the Centers for Disease Control (Link)

Youth and young adults ages 10–24 years account for 14% of all suicides. The suicide rate for this age group (10.5 per 100,000) was lower than other age groups. However, suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people, accounting for 6,643 deaths. For youth ages 10-14, suicide is the second leading cause of death.

Some groups of young people (ages 10-24 years) most at-risk for suicide include non-Hispanic AI/AN, with a suicide rate of 33.0 per 100,000. Sexual minority youth are also at increased risk (see below).

Youth and young adults aged 10-24 have lower suicide rates, but they have higher 2019 rates of emergency department (ED) visits for self-harm (342.5 per 100,000) compared to people ages 25 years and older (121.9 per 100,000).

• There was an estimated 217,447 ED visits for self-harm among this younger age group. Girls and young women aged 10-24 are at particularly high risk, with their ED visit rate (487.9 per 100,000) being twice the rate of ED visits among boys and young men (203.3 per 100,000).
• Further, the rate of ED visits among girls in 2019 was double compared to 2001 (244.3 per 100,000).

In 2019, 9% of high school students reported attempting suicide during the previous 12 months. Suicide attempts were reported most frequently among girls compared to boys (11% vs. 6.6%) and among non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native students (25.5%).