A new school year is here and is a good reminder for staff to know that resources are available when a crisis happens. Doctor Bart Andrews with Behavioral Health Response in St. Louis told Missourinet that the suicide rate spikes when school is in session.

“So, there are two peaks in the suicide rate – spring and fall. We’ve known that for quite a while,” he said. “For youth, there’s kind of a double whammy because not only are suicide rates higher in spring and fall because of the seasonal pattern, but being in school, at school, for whatever reason, increases the suicide rate.”

He said that the suicide rate among youth has been on the rise for the past 20 years.

A handy tool for teachers is Missouri’s 988 guide; an effort to help school personnel use suicide prevention, intervention, and crisis response services to meet student needs in grades K-12 and college.

Behavioral Health Response in St. Louis provides 24-hour access to mental health services. He said that Missouri’s 988 guide for schools takes a tailored approach, based on a student’s age.

“The developmental periods are different for kids of different ages, right? So, how we talk about suicide and how we talk about self-care and how we talk about prevention with elementary school kids is going to look very different then with middle schoolers and different with high schoolers,” Andrews said.

Andrews said that he wants to normalize youth reaching out.

“That youth can text, chat, call, right? We want schools to have to know there’s actually, 988 funds mobile outreach services so families and schools can call, and a mobile outreach team can come out to them,” he said. “We want to make sure that schools know that there are resources out there to support them in this very difficult work they do every day taking care of our children.”

The 988 toolkit includes guidelines for how to understand and respond to a crisis and includes procedures for how to handle a potentially suicidal student.

Find copies of the guide through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Click here for more information.

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Testimony began Wednesday in a pivotal hearing for Missouri inmate Marcellus Williams, who is scheduled to be executed and is seeking to have his 1998 murder conviction vacated. The hearing, before St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton, follows a motion by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to vacate the conviction due to new DNA evidence. Williams is set to be executed on September 24, and neither Gov. Mike Parson nor Attorney General Andrew Bailey has expressed a willingness to delay the process.

Williams, 55, was convicted for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle. However, DNA tests in 2017 revealed that DNA on the murder weapon did not match Williams, prompting then-Gov. Eric Greitens to stay the execution. Bell argues that this “never-before-considered evidence” coupled with ineffective counsel and racial bias at trial warrants a reevaluation of the conviction, noting Williams was sentenced by an almost all-white jury.

A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecutors to file motions to vacate convictions they believe are unjust, resulting in recent exonerations. Williams, the first death row inmate to have his case heard since the law was put in place, has garnered support from former death row inmate Joseph Amrine. Amrine emphasized the human cost, stating, “The state has nothing to gain by killing the wrong person.” (This story was generated by Newser’s AI chatbot. Source: the AP)