By Shanda Kersey
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore County Board of Education received a plea at its meeting Tuesday night to implement suicide prevention and awareness programs in Baltimore County public schools.
Kevin Leary, a Republican who ran on unsuccessful campaign this year for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 8, spoke on the issue during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“Too many children are taking their lives because of whatever issues they have with home, school or whatever,” Leary said during his statement to the board. “We as community leaders need to be at the frontline to try to help recognize the problem and help them to get the help that they need before they choose a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
Leary said he has been pushing this cause since the first time he ran for political office four years ago.
“What we really need is to have some mental health professionals and some other suicide prevention experts come in and speak to the staff and teach them the warning signs, what to do, how to approach the situation, and just give them some kind of background and knowledge on trying to help somebody that’s in a crisis situation,” Leary said. “Most of the teachers interact with these students and if they knew what to look for, they could possibly get that kid to the school counselor or to the administrator or whoever’s in the school that could get him or her to the place they need to be.”
Leary said he raised the issue with the board because a Perry Hall High School tenth grader committed suicide this past weekend. Leary said the majority of suicides are people between the ages of 13 and 24.
“We have adults that are in dire need of mental health,” Leary said. “I think if we reach the children then we won’t get to that point where they adults are a problem.”
According to Baltimore County police, the school resource officer at Eastern Tech High School took his own life inside his office Monday.
“If we get them early, before it gets to a crisis, then we can stop this,” Leary said. “We can slow it down at least. I don’t think we’ll save everybody, but if we could save one, we’ve done our job.”