Carson City school staff to go through suicide prevention training

Administrators and staff in the Carson City school district will be participating in a suicide recognition training at the end of the month.

Misty Allen, suicide prevention coordinator at the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Office of Suicide Prevention, spoke to the school board Tuesday about implementing a new training program that will help school staff be able to recognize suicidal signs to help prevent deaths in the schools.

“It is a difficult topic and so people don’t want to talk about it,” Allen said. “Our goal is to develop, implement and evaluate suicide prevention training in the schools.”

The training, Safe Talk Suicide Awareness for Everyone, will be Sept. 21 from 3:30-7 p.m. at Carson Middle School.

“Suicide is preventable and the more we can talk about it and prevent it, then we can help stop the suicide crisis,” Allen said.

The program is also hoping to implement additional programs in the schools for students as well to be able to help them recognize signs of suicide they may see in their friends and classmates to be able to alert an adult.

Superintendent Richard Stokes said this is the first time the school district has had any formal training on suicide recognition.

In other business, the school board also chose the topic for the Carson City School District Board of Trustees Sponsored American Citizen Essay Contest.

This essay topic is given to every student in the Carson school district and it’s going to be judged by grade level for originality and quality.

The school board decided on the topic “In your opinion what’s the most important freedom in the Bill of Rights.”

Stokes also recognized two students from Carson City who are semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship program. Katasha DeGraw of Carson High School and Lawrence VanDyke, a home schooled student, have both been selected for the program’s semifinals.