Lifelines
Suicide is one of the top three causes of death for young people ages ten through twenty-four. Because we at Broken Arrow Public Schools take the safety and well-being of our students very seriously, we are planning on providing our 6th through 8th grade students with some basic information about youth suicide and, more importantly, teaching them what to do if they are worried about themselves or a friend.
We set strict standards for the suicide-prevention programs that we have investigated:
They needed to show their effectiveness through research.
They needed to send accurate messages about suicide that are grade-level appropriate.
They needed to emphasize the importance of help-seeking behavior.
We also recognized that a program needed to be comprehensive. We are a school community, and as such, we care about the welfare of all our members. We know we couldn’t teach our students that it’s okay to ask for help if everyone in the community—administrators, faculty, staff, and parents/guardians—didn’t know what to do if a student approached them as a trusted adult to talk about this sensitive topic.
Lifelines Prevention, the program we have selected, exceeds these criteria. Because research has demonstrated that programs presented only once have little lasting impact, the Lifelines Prevention curriculum is designed to be delivered in four forty- to forty-five-minute modules that reinforce messages about help-seeking. The interactive curriculum teaches basic information about potential warning signs for suicide, but its emphasis is on what to do if a student is worried about either themselves or a friend.
Lifelines Prevention also doesn’t stop in the classroom. It includes resources for our administrators to help us assess our ability to ensure student safety in a variety of situations.
The program includes training for our resource and support staff, the members of our crisis intervention team, and our faculty.
As parents and guardians, you will also have an opportunity to ask for more information or see the LifeLines Prevention Curriculum we will be using in the classroom. We encourage you to reach out to our Counselors to learn more about this resource, which we believe will enhance the competence of all members of our school community to provide a safer environment for our students.
If you have any questions or concerns or would NOT like for your student to participate in the LifeLines curriculum this school year, please contact the counseling office at 918-259-4590 or email ksullivan@baschools.org (A-K) or kmiller@baschools.org (L-Z).