Suicide summit suggests overhaul needed

Even the critics believed the initial St. Charles Unit District 303 summit on student suicide was a success Wednesday night, but the initial feedback from participants indicated they believe the same can't be said for the district's suicide prevention activities.

The district is hosting the meetings in response to the six student suicides in the district within the past seven years.

"Our one and only goal is to have none, zero, of our young people take their own lives," said John Knewitz, one of the district's assistant superintendents.

That said, during the community feedback, a couple current high school students said they do not know what to do if they feel depressed or were thinking about killing themselves. Students currently receive information about "social decision making" and problem solving as early as elementary school in the district.

Experts at the meeting said suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for 10- to 14-year-olds of both genders. However, Stephanie Weber of Batavia-based Suicide Prevention Services said the youngest case her agency has ever been involved with was a 6-year-old boy who hung himself with a dog leash behind his family home.

By the time students reach high school, where all the district's suicides have occurred, five 45-minute periods of instruction on depression and suicide and just being a teenager occur during freshman year. However, that instruction tapers off to just one 45-minute class on those same topics as they become upperclassmen. Looking at it a different way, community members will spend more time talking about depression and suicide in the summit process (eight hours) than students will in their entire high school career (7.5 hours).

Craig Bobowiec, the stepdad of a student who committed suicide, was at the meeting and said the information about what elementary students are currently taught on the topic was totally new to him despite having a second-grader in the system right now.

A general need for better communication was an oft-repeated suggestion by the 150 attendees.

Also suggested was:

• having more people attend the summit meetings, especially students

• better assessing the need, including having students create of list of adults they feel they can talk to (if there are none, that's a problem)

• increasing the number of social workers in the district so there is at least one in every building

• working hard to eliminate the stigma of having depression or asking for help

The next summit meeting will be at 7 p.m., May 27, at the Charlestowne Mall. It will feature students sharing their views on the issue.