Kansas
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.
Copyright 2024 WIBW. All rights reserved.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Bates County Circuit Court judge Friday sentenced a Linn County, Kansas, man in connection with the December 2025 death of Airen Andula, 13.
Damon Leonard, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison for abandonment of a corpse, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to the charge of abandoning a corpse on May 22.
Andula disappeared from his Pleasanton, Kansas, home on Dec. 21, 2025. A day later, law enforcement found the boy’s body in a ravine in Bates County, Missouri. He had died from multiple dog bite injuries.
Police were led to the boy’s body after a phone call from Leonard.
Court documents said Leonard “admitted that he transported the deceased child from Kansas to Missouri and left the body in the bottom of the creek” before he returned home.
KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva spoke with Andula’s family earlier this week — after the guilty plea and ahead of Friday’s sentencing.
His family shared that the guilty plea brought a small sense of justice, but it didn’t do much to ease the pain of their loss.
READ MORE | Family of Airen Andula speaks out ahead of sentencing
“We’re missing our kid every day of our lives,” the boy’s father Charles Andula told Silva.
Leonard received credit for time served of 158 days in his sentence, per court records.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – It may not seem like a lot of relief, but gas and diesel prices have declined over the past week.
Friday morning’s national average for a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.39, according to the Automobile Association of America.
That’s down three cents from $4.42 on Thursday; down 16 cents from a week ago; but was up 17 cents from $4.22 a month ago and up $.23 from $3.16 a year ago.
In Kansas, AAA says, unleaded gas on Friday was averaging $3.96 a gallon — down four cents from $4.00 on Thursday; down 13 cents from $3.96 a week ago; but up 26 cents from $3.70 a month ago; and up $1.07 over $2.89 a year ago.
Diesel fuel also was dropping in price. AAA says Friday’s national average for a gallon of diesel was $5.52 a gallon — down three cents from $5.55 on Thursday; down 12 cents from $5.64 a week a go; but up six cents from $5.46 a month ago and up $1.98 from $3.54 a year ago.
Kansas diesel fuel prices, according to AAA, checked in at an average of $4.98 on Friday. That’s five cents below $5.03 on Thursday; down 16 cents from $5.14 a week ago; but up 24 cents over $4.74 a month ago; and up $1.72 from $3.26 a year ago.
In Topeka, GasBuddy.com on Friday morning showed unleaded gas prices ranging between $3.77 and $4.09 in Topeka, with diesel fuel going for between $4.94 and $5.29 a gallon.
Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.
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