On students’ second day of school, the Federal Way school district locked down Todd Beamer High School as they searched for a suicidal 17-year-old.
The day before, a school counselor had called police to report that the former student made suicidal statements and that maybe he would die at the school. Police noted the teen also suffers from depression.
Police fortunately found the boy at a friend’s house and transported him for a mental evaluation.
The lockdown was an hour-long blip in the teachers’ and students’ day and classes returned to normal immediately afterwards.
However, for many right here in Federal Way, suicide has a long-lasting impact on them.
This is no more evident than in the police call log that Mirror staff goes through every week to select items for our police blotter. We almost always come across calls from people threatening suicide — a man locked in a bathroom threatening to injure himself, a depressed woman hurting herself or a young person just crying out for help.
For other calls that police respond to, it’s too late and someone has already killed himself or herself.
Statewide, three people take their own lives each day on average and suicide rates have slightly gone up from 2006 to 2012, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Suicide is Washington’s eighth leading cause of death — second in the 15-24-year-old age group.
In 2011, there were 128 completed suicides of Washington state youth between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the University of Washington’s Forefront: innovations in suicide prevention program.
This week is National Suicide Prevention Week and the Mirror is joining others around the country to share the hopeful message that suicide can be prevented.
Watch for warnings. If someone is speaking about having no reason to live, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-8255 and you’ll be connected to a trained counselor, anytime 24/7.
Stay connected with others, even one person who you trust or who cares for you — that is a main factor in preventing suicides, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Talk freely about suicide and listen without judgement. These are just a few things, and you can find more tips at www.intheforefront.org.
I hope parents, teachers and others will also use the lockdown at Todd Beamer and similar events as a teachable moment to inform our youngsters and community at large about suicide and how to get help.
