Astor on Risk of Suicide Among California’s Youth
A Southern California News Group article about a survey asking California students whether they have thought about killing themselves cited Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor, an expert on school safety. Of the students surveyed, nearly one in five had considered suicide within the last 12 months, the news group’s analysis found. The rate at individual school sites ranged from 4% to nearly 70%, according to Astor, who has conducted an extensive study of the data. “What happens in the classroom and on the playground matters,” he said. “How students are treated between themselves and by teachers, it matters.” Each school district in the state decides whether to administer the survey to ninth- and 11th-graders and students in non-traditional high schools. Districts that obtain the information and act on it report a reduction in suicide ideation rates, the newspaper reported. Astor also commented in a second Southern California News Group article about three California bills aimed at preventing teen suicide, and discussed the issue in a televised interview with CBS Los Angeles.
