Alaska Senate Panel Advances Youth Suicide Prevention Bill

The Alaska Senate Finance Committee heard testimony Thursday on legislation that would establish guidelines for schools that choose to notify parents when a student is bullied, harassed, or expresses suicidal thoughts and create a grant fund to provide safe storage devices to families on a voluntary basis.

Senate Bill 206 would establish evidence-based guidelines for schools that choose to notify parents when children express suicidal thoughts or are bullied. The bill also creates a firearm safe storage grant fund within the general fund in the Department of Administration to accept grants and donations for purchasing storage devices. Sen. Lukey Gail Tobin, the bill's prime sponsor, said Alaska has been number one in youth suicide.

Alaska News previously reported that advocates and youth called on lawmakers in March to support House Bill 138 and Senate Bill 196, which would fund suicide prevention programs through phone surcharges, but those bills have not advanced from committee.

Tobin told the committee the legislation offers children time to survive moments of crisis. "10 minutes. 10 Minutes from when a child thinks about taking their life or inflicting self-harm to action," Tobin said. "Storing your medication and storing your firearm will give our children time."

The bill requires school districts that adopt parental notification plans to include three elements: evidence-based information for parents, recognition that parents should store medications and firearms safely, and resources for referral and support. School districts would not be required to adopt such plans. Parents would not be required to accept storage devices offered to them during notification.

"One in five young Alaskans have seriously considered suicide," Tobin said. "Now we know that every 11 minutes, one child in this nation takes their life. 80 percent use a firearm."

The bill also authorizes the Alaska Statewide Council on Suicide Prevention to advise school districts on appropriate resource materials for parents.

Claire Schmitt, a research specialist working on suicide prevention in Alaska, provided invited testimony that research shows impulsivity plays a major role in youth suicide attempts. Studies have shown that up to 50 percent of suicide attempters spend less than an hour contemplating suicide before an attempt. Twenty-five percent think about it for 10 minutes or less, Schmitt said.

"When a highly lethal method of suicide like firearm is easily accessible, these attempts are far more likely to result in death," Schmitt said. "When the same method is not accessible, when firearms are safely stored, locked, and in a separate location from ammunition, the odds of firearm-related death decreases by about 80 percent."