CMS takes proactive approach in addressing suicide prevention
When it comes to suicide prevention, “it’s better to lose a friendship than it is to lose a friend,” a security consultant told fifth- through 12th-grade students at Cutter Morning Star School last week.
Mark Warren, vice president of Strategos International, gave presentations to students, teachers and parents, with each presentation tailored to the different groups on Thursday, Nancy Anderson, CMS superintendent said.
According to its website, Strategos is “an innovative leader in security training, consulting and protective services” that has equipped more than 125,000 people since 2002. Anderson said Cutter has used Strategos for faculty training on different occasions, but this is the first time the district has provided a presentation to students and parents.
“One of the things we’ve seen in active shooter situations is oftentimes they will then kill themselves,” Anderson said. “In light of all the things happening lately, we know that our kids have concerns and we’ve had some parents call with questions about what we would do in these situations.
“We are taking a proactive approach to know what signs to look for and (how to) look for those signs of suicide. We hope to be proactive and get our students to speak up.”
Warren, a retired police officer, told students he hoped to give them the tools to alleviate their concerns following incidents like the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla.
“One of the things I really want you to understand is why this is important,” he said. “A lot of times because of your ages, maybe you don’t have the life experiences to understand that things may not be as bad
as you think they are.”
Warren said research indicates most youths who are contemplating suicide talk with a peer about it before they ever do anything.
“They’re going to talk to you more than they’re going to talk to someone like me or one of your teachers or staff,” he said. “If you think about it from that standpoint, if it’s you that finds out that one of your friends may be contemplating suicide but only about 25 percent of you go to an adult. What do you think would happen if your best friend talked to you about something like that and you didn’t tell anybody and then they did something?”
In 2012, he said, 40,000 people in the United States died as a result of suicide. Having been a police officer, Warren said he has been to several of those scenes and seen different people of various ages that ended their lives.
“What I also ended up seeing was what it does to the families,” he said. “The ages of 15 to 24 there’s 11 suicides per 100,000 people. That doesn’t sound like a great amount when you’re looking at 100,000 people, but when you start thinking about it one is too many.
“We all go through problems in our lives, but how we deal with those problems are some of the things we want to help you with. It’s the second-leading cause for people your age to die. … Arkansas is ranked 10th out of the 50 states for youth suicide. Where would you like to be? I would like for you guys to be 50th. This is one of those times that coming in last is a good thing.”
Warren told students to remember that “it’s better to lose a friendship than it is to lose a friend.”
He said 115 people are impacted in some way or fashion when an individual dies by suicide, with 25 people in that person’s life whose lives will never be the same.
“That’s also one every 12.8 minutes,” he said. “In the time that we do this lecture with you, in about an hour’s time five people will have committed suicide. That’s about 575 people that will be directly impacted. That will be about 225 people that their lives will forever be changed in the next hour. We have to understand there’s so many things that we can do that will prevent these things.”
Warren compared being able to spot the risk factors and warning signs of someone contemplating suicide to being able to spot the warning signs of a heart attack.
“If I start having chest pains and shortness of breath, you may see that and say, ‘Hey, he’s having a heart attack,’ and you’re able to help me and treat me for that,” he said. “Suicide is very similar to that, but it has different warning signs.”
Warren used a traffic light as an example to explain the difference between risk factors and warning signs.
“Warning signs are the red lights, and that’s when things are really, really bad,” he said. “But risk factors are the yellow ones. That’s where things are building up to that point where if we’re paying attention, we can maybe intervene and help our friend earlier.”
Anderson told students that the district’s ultimate concern is to keep them safe.
“Oftentimes you know better what is going on around you,” she said. “If you see (warning signs) let us know — report it.”