By Rhys Baker

September is Suicide Awareness Month. Schools across the state of Kansas are required to provide a suicide prevention program each year. This year, USD 379 – Clay Center Community High School is using an informational program called SOS or Signs of Suicide. Sophomore students will be presented with this program this week.

Various studies have shown that the Signs of Suicide Program effectively teaches students about depression and suicide while reducing the number of students’ self-reported suicide attempts. Students watch a 12-15 minute video, then the real work begins. Clay Center Community High School Counselor Sally Lee says, “We have an open discussion in the classroom, students take a pre and post-test, then if anyone needed to talk immediately to a counselor or something like that, we would know right away. The programs just give students information. If you talk about suicide, it doesn’t cause suicide. We want to be able to talk to students about anything they might be struggling with. The open discussions teach us how to help them in other ways that we might not know about at the time.”

Topics included during the discussion include the treatability of depression, how to identify depression and potential risks, and who students can turn to at school for help if they need it. Lee says the YLINK organization will hold informative sessions for parents and interested community members later in the school year.