Actively prevent suicidal behavior by training staff and having programs that identify high-risk students and then link them to therapeutic and preventive community services.

Early identification and intervention offer the potential of preventing suicide. School personnel are in an excellent position to identify students at risk for suicide and, as a result, need to know both what to look for and how to respond.

Students who have mental disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, substance abuse, conduct disorders), who have had a prior attempt of suicide, or who have been exposed to suicide behaviors have a heightened risk for suicide. Victimization, bullying, isolation, trauma, hopelessness, recent loss and having difficulty with issues of sexual identity are other risks for suicide. Teachers and other staff are well positioned to detect these risks and take action. School personnel must consider any talk about suicide a serious warning sign.

School protocols, when there is a suicide or attempted suicide, must focus on both the involved individual ( i.e., linkage to mental health services and monitoring of continued participation) and on the school population ( i.e., interventions to address stresses that are related to the exposure, identification of students at risk for copy behavior, and referrals, as necessary for evaluation and services.) Develop data collection and data analysis systems that provide for tracking cases, feedback to the school and the community and allow for evaluation of schools' prevention programs.

Appendix F and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines (14) describe factors indicative of increased risk for suicide, strategies that schools could adopt to prevent and confront these risks and methods of tracking incidents.

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