Annual Notice on Suicide Prevention

Annual Notice on Suicide Prevention

Last year we had a current and former student who were a victim of suicide and several others that were in danger. This was a challenging time for staff, parents, and students.

Thank you for providing students with encouragement, kindness, and support to meet their learning, emotional, and social needs. Continue to deposit them each day with this as this helps build them up more and more. You can and do make a difference for them.

Each September we provide our Annual Notice on Suicide Prevention which is aligned with Suicide Prevention month.  The following are resources that are available to help you and the students.

(Suicide Prevention Policy JHH)
The Medford Area Board of Education recognizes that suicide and suicide tendencies among youth are continuing problems in the schools and communities of the nation.  The board also recognizes that it is not a problem that it can deal with alone.  Communication and cooperation within the school district and between the home, school, and community is crucial.

The Board of Education has established Suicide Prevention Policies (JHH and JHH-R) in an effort to take positive steps toward preventing childhood/adolescent suicides and to outline procedures by which students can receive professional help and support in the following three areas:

1. Prevention: To develop within the Medford Area Public School System a suicide prevention curriculum and to provide an ongoing inservice process that provides all staff members with basic information about, and a recognition of, the signs of suicidal behavior;

2. Intervention: To take affirmative action when an immediate referral is warranted and to understand the emergency procedures when a referral is made;

3. Postvention: To provide for the needs of students after an act of suicide has taken place. 

Attached are Youth Suicide Prevention Resources from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. You are encouraged to review them.  I can provide you with District Policy JHH-R with more specific information.

Department of Public Instruction
Here is a link to the DPI information and resources:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/sspw/suicideprev.html

Student Services Team
Don Everhard = School District Safety and Crisis Coordinator
Louann Stanton - MASH Guidance Counselor
Terry Lybert - MASH Guidance Counselor
Jackie Strick - MAMS Guidance Counselor
Jessica Martin - MAMS and MASH School Psychologist
Barb Krenz - MAES and SES School Psychologist
Sue Eloranta - MAES and SES Guidance Counselor
Jill Koenig - School District Nurse
Rich Burghaus - School District Police Liaison Officer

For more information - please contact a Student Services Team member, Building Principal, or myself.

Thank you,

Joseph Greget
Director of Student Services and Special Education