Fewer Nevada teens attempting suicide

Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

The percentage of Nevada high school and middle school students who say they have attempted suicide has declined over the past two years, as has the amount of alcohol and tobacco they reported using, a new survey says.

The biennial Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which quizzes students on drug and alcohol use, school safety and sexual activity, found students are feeling better and acting safer in most areas, but showed a need for change in others.

Of 90 questions high schoolers answered, 65 indicated improvement of at least a percentage point in the students' attitudes and behaviors while ground was lost in five areas. Among the 65 questions asked of middle school students, 25 indicated similar improvement and eight indicated problems had gotten worse.

When asked last spring, 8.8 percent of high schoolers said they had attempted suicide in the 12 months prior to the survey, down from 10.7 percent in 2001. At the middle school level, 10.8 percent of students said they had attempted suicide, a drop from 11.9 percent in 2001.

The percentage of high schoolers who said they they had ever considered attempting suicide also declined, from 19.6 percent in 2001 to 18.1 percent this year. The percentage of middle schoolers who said they had suicidal thoughts was 16.4 percent in 2003, unchanged from the prior survey.

The overall results are encouraging but show there is still work to be done, said Robinette Bacon, school health education coordinator for the Nevada Education Department.

"We are seeing some very positive trends," said Bacon, who presented the survey results at the Nevada Board of Education's meeting Saturday in Las Vegas. "This helps us evaluate which of the messages being delivered in schools are hitting home with students."

Jennifer Murphy, a junior at Foothill High School who lost a close friend to suicide last year, said she believes her peers are becoming more open in talking about depression. When her friend took his life everyone was shocked, Murphy said.

"We had no clue anything was wrong," Murphy said. "He had good grades, was in honor classes, lots of friends."

Murphy said she knows now that even high-achieving students can be at risk.

Harrison Seeler, a sophomore at Coronado High School, said suicide prevention, along with recognizing warning signs of depression, was a focus of a course in his freshman year.

"If someone I knew talked about suicide or if I was concerned, I'd go to the school counselors," Seeler said. "There's a lot of places a person can get help if they need it."

Statewide the number of students who said they had been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on campus declined about a percentage point for high schoolers, from 35.7 percent in 2001 to 34.5 percent this year. The percentage climbed more than two percentage points at the middle school level to 20.9 percent from 18.8 percent.

Drugs are available to students who seek them, said Steven Savoy, a junior at Coronado High School. Savoy, who has attention deficit disorder, said he's even been approached by classmates who mistakenly see him as a source.

"I've been offered $20 a pill for my Ritalin," Savoy said. "It's stupid ... I would never sell drugs."

The number of high school students surveyed who said they were able to purchase tobacco products without being asked for identification dropped sharply from 46 percent in 2001 to 39.5 percent this year.

That jibes with a federal report released last week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which praised Nevada as one of seven states that had curtailed the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to teenagers.

Other findings from the state youth survey:

"The ones who are active are very active," Bacon said.

Results by individual school districts were not yet available.

Some of the changes to student attitudes may be based more on personal experiences than lessons in the classroom, said Rand Kelly, a sophomore at Green Valley High School.

The number of high schoolers who said they rarely wore a seat belt while being driven by someone else dropped from 17.5 percent to 12.3 percent, according to the survey.

The importance of wearing seat belts has been a constant refrain since elementary school, Kelly said. But it was the Sept. 10 car wreck that killed three 15-year-old boys -- Coronado sophomores Kyle Poff and and Josh Parry, as well as his Green Valley classmate Travis Dunning -- that seems to have had a direct effect, Kelly said.

"After that accident some of my friends started buckling up," Kelly said. "We all kind of joked that stuff off before when we had assemblies but now we're actually thinking about it."

Jane Kadoich, director of guidance and counseling for the Clark County School District, said the survey's findings reflect what she and her staff are seeing on a daily basis.

"We're seeing kids becoming more responsible and taking better care of themselves," Kadoich said this morning.

The improvements in student attitudes and behaviors is likely a combination of educational programs, adult role modeling and personal experiences such as Kelly's, Kadoich said.

"I would love to say the message they hear from their parents and their schools is enough to motivate them, but the reality is most kids think they are invincible," Kadoich said. "Sometimes it takes a hard lesson to really rattle their cage."