An act allocating funding to provide suicide awareness training to every teacher and education administrator in Wyoming was discussed in the state senate this week. Wyoming is ranked within the top five states for suicide rates in the country according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and leaders on campus and in the state consider the act very important.
The Wyoming Department of Public Health reported that between 2002 and 2011 the suicide rate among 0 to 19-year-old was 4.76 per 100,000 persons and the state ranked number one in the nation for an over-all suicide rate.
The Jason Flatt Act has been circulating around the country and has been passed by several states already. According to jasonfoundation.com, the act has been passed in 12 states already. In Wyoming, the Jason Flatt Act specifically sets aside money from the Wyoming education resource block grant model to provide training for suicide prevention. Every educator is required to complete at least two hours of suicide prevention educator for each year they are employed as an educator, according to the bill.
Active Minds President Luke Cole said he fully supports the act. Active Minds is a Registered Student Organization on campus that supports similar proactive, preventative action by teachers and administrators, said Cole.
“I feel that the act embodies the spirit of our mission as an organization, which is, in part, to encourage students to seek help whenever they feel that they need it,” said Cole. “Training instructors and administrators to recognize students who might need help is an important step in fulfilling this mission.”
The act will be effective July 1, 2014, if passed. Any teacher or administrator will be required to participate in training starting the 2014-2015 school year. The director of the education board of Wyoming will hold the responsible of approving materials used for the suicide prevention education.
The bill is named after a New Jersey teen “became a statistic of the ‘Silent Epidemic’” in 1997. The act was first passed into Tennessee’s state law in 2007. California quickly followed with the passing its version of the act and Wyoming will be the 13th state to pass the bill. The third reading was consented Tuesday.
The full version of the bill is available on legisweb.state.wy.us.
