Teaching Tolerance Examines Suicide Rate Among Young, Black Children
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The suicide rate among young, black students has steadily increased in the past few years but schools can help mitigate outcomes by connecting students to critical mental health services, as well as addressing how school curriculum and discipline practices can affect them, according to the latest issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine.
“Black Minds Matter,” the cover story for the Fall issue of the magazine, highlights a 2018 study by JAMA Pediatrics analyzing data from 2001 to 2015 that showed black children between the ages of 5 and 12 were twice as likely to die by suicide as their white peers. The article explores how schools can help mitigate this disparity through culturally-informed interventions and practices.
“The suicide rate among the youngest African American students is alarming,” said Maureen Costello, director of Teaching Tolerance. ‘Black Minds Matter’ is about changing the way schools view and respond to meet their needs.”
Other articles in the magazine:
• explore how black educators cope with teaching at schools that have a Confederate namesake;
• examine educators’ response to a nationwide call to arm teachers in schools; and
• feature an interview with Historian Ned Blackhawk in which he explains why understanding Indigenous enslavement is important to fully understanding American history.
The 2019 Fall issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine is available at: tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2019.
Teaching Tolerance magazine, published three times a year, is the nation’s leading journal serving educators on diversity issues. It is distributed free of charge to more than 410,000 educators nationwide.
