As you know, all Kentucky middle school and high school
teachers, counselors, principals, and other certified employees are required to
have 2 hours of suicide prevention training annually. For the past several years, we have used the
Jason Foundation modules, but KDE also recommends a training from the Society
for the Prevention of Teen Suicide. I
completed their training this morning and feel that it is high quality. I would like for GCMS staff to use the SPTS training
this year. This does not count as part
of our 4 days (24 hours) of PD, so you are welcome to wait until school starts
and complete the training during planning time if you like. I wanted to go ahead and send you the link
though, so you can complete it this summer if you like.
Just go to www.sptsuniversity.org. On the left hand side under the Log-In
section, click “create new account”. You
choose your own username and password and complete a quick registration. After you are registered and logged in,
choose the module “Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention: Act
on Facts (National)”. No need to do the
South Dakota version, though I’m not sure what the difference would be in South
Dakota. The program takes about 2 hours
to complete (depending on your reading speed, transition time, and if you
repeat any video segments), and then you should print off your certificate of
completion. Please return your
certificate to Mrs. House before the end of August.
As you all know, we lost an 8th grade student to
an apparent suicide last school year. I
don’t know if there is anything that anyone at GCMS could have said or done to
have prevented this tragedy, but it was a scary reminder that suicide can and
does happen everywhere.
I appreciate the care you take in watching over our
students.
Thanks,
Jim
