In September, the MVUSD Board of Education adopted a new policy for training on suicide awareness and prevention. Fulfilling that new policy, counselors in district schools have now finished one round of training to ensure they are prepared to identify and assess students with suicidal intentions.
The counselors learned about collaboration with professional resources, school resource officers and mental health CREST team from Riverside University Health System.
Training also covered after school hour procedures. A future training will be offered for other school support staff to recognize the warning signs of suicide.
“The more we talk about it, the more we are aware of it; and the more we have resources toward preventing it, we are saving our babies,” said Patty Rucker at the September 12 School Board Meeting, when the policy was discussed.