Kansas

Kansas Department of Education prompts school districts to update their fall suicide prevention response plans

Published

2 years ago

August 22, 2024

Kansas Department of Education prompts school districts to update their fall suicide prevention response plans

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Kansas State Department of Education has updated their 2018 suicide prevention plan and are prompting all of their Kansas school districts to do the same.

The Kansas Suicide Prevention, intervention, reintegration and postvention toolkit is a comprehensive guide that provides step-by-step guidance for setting up a systematic approach to suicide prevention, response and postvention for schools.

“We don’t think any student who makes a statement of self-harm is just telling a story or trying to get attention. We take every statement serious,” says Dr. Joy Grimes, Principal at Avondale Academy.

All 286 school districts are required to come up with a response plan that meets the needs of their specific community using the toolkit.

The principals, admins and all their support staff have been training teachers when that child needs to have a critical conversation, a conversation that is supportive but also allows the child to express what it is that is troubling them,” says Susan Mills Coordinator of Social Services for USD-501.

Trish Backman with KSDE says they have added new language and resources like the 988 hotline and their new reintegration plan, one that Backman says she is especially proud of.

“So that reintegration part had never been broken out specifically until this year because it had always been looked at as prevention intervention and postvention, if that reintegration piece isn’t in place a lot of times that safety net isn’t there and the kids continually stir from one crisis to the next,” says Backman.

Backman says each staff member is required to undergo at least one hour of suicide prevention training.

“So one of the recommendations we make in the toolkit is when you have your plan if you’re comfortable posting the skeleton or the basics that you want everybody to know about your plan put it on your website. The thing I would really encourage every district to do is put who your school mental health team is. If your kid is having a crisis then the people in the community can look that up on your website and they know who to contact,” she says.

She also says the number of student suicides have started to come down slowly.

“With our new graduation requirements where kids have to be actively engaged in something one of the things that they can do join some kind of a youth empowerment group and every group gets to pick what their topic is going to be and a lot of them have chosen suicide,” says Bachman.

Backman says more resources for staff and families in need are now available here.

Source link

Related Topics:988 districts Featured hotline intervetion kansas KSDE plan postvention prevention reintegration resaponse School suicide

Click to comment

Kansas

Former Kansas high school wrestling coach charged with producing child pornography

Published

48 minutes ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Former Kansas high school wrestling coach charged with producing child pornography

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A former Kansas wrestling coach was charged with creating child sexual abuse materials by secretly recording minors showering during an athletic competition.

According to court documents, 37-year-old Ryan Brungardt of Salina is charged with two counts of production of child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography.

Brungardt is a former employee at Lakewood Middle School and former wrestling coach for Salina Central High School.

Brungardt is accused of using a cellphone to record three minors while they showered in a locker room during the Tournament of Champions, a wrestling tournament was held at Newton High in January 2024.

Brungardt made his initial court appearance for the criminal complaint on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brooks G. Severson.

A detention hearing is scheduled for Monday

Investigators are in the process of reviewing additional seized cellphone videos in this case that are suspected to have been recorded at wrestling meets in Newton, Hays, Garden City and Salina during the 2023-2024 wrestling season.

Anyone who believes they witnessed crimes or any suspicious activity at these events is asked to contact the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at (785) 600-8790 or report at www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.

Source link