The Youth Suicide Prevention School-Based Guide is a nationwide tool designed to provide a framework for schools to assess their existing or proposed suicide prevention programs and provide resources and information that school administrators can use to enhance or add to their existing program. This tool has been available for several years and details the great importance of staff training and presentation of information to parents, even going so far as to declare it as an essential component of suicide prevention programs.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15-19, yet despite having access to the YSPSBG, many school districts have been reticent in adopting effective evidence based programs and have either no plan or partial plans in effect. Indeed there are even some districts which have intentionally chosen not to follow the criteria of the well researched YSPSBG.

Just for curiosity's sake, let's look at an absolute worst case scenario of what could happen, when a school district casts aside YSPSBG guidelines, and chooses to follow its own guidelines instead.

Imagine a well respected school district, which for all intensive purposes appears to be following a very well intentioned suicide prevention program, but has no system in place for training its staff or parent notification.

Next, let's take an honor student from a high school in that district who begins to confide in one of her parents a recent inability to comprehend her reading material and focus; how it seems to take her an hour to read a single page; how she begins to think that perhaps she has ADD or Dyslexia; and how she can no longer concentrate on her studies.

Since there has been no parent information sent out, and knowing absolutely nothing about adolescent depression, the parent of this student believes that her child simply has too much on her plate. Soon the child begins to stay up late into the night to complete her studies. It is at this point that the parent turns to the only place that makes sense for her to ask for help, the school.

One day this parent drives in off the street, with no appointment, to speak to the Assistant Principal. It seems clear to her that at the very least her child needs to be taken out of her honors classes.

After speaking at length with the Assistant Principal, the parent is told that the Guidance Counselor would be informed and to expect contact soon. When the Guidance Counselor calls, the parent reiterates all of her concerns. The parent is told that all of the child's teachers will be contacted to see how the child is doing.

When the Guidance Counselor calls again, she conveys that the child is maintaining her 4.0 status and that there are no immediate concerns from any of the teachers. Keep in mind that there has been no formal staff training on depression/suicide. As such, no one is able to recognize the 'inability to concentrate', as being one of the primary signs of potential suicide in an adolescent.

At this time, a memo is distributed amongst the teachers instructing them to 'lighten up' on this child. Additionally, the Guidance Counselor calls the child in to see how she is doing, at which time the child manages to convey that she is 'doing great'.

The school's reaction is not very comforting to the parent who now calls the Administration Building and speaks to the Assistant Superintendent who proceeds to tell her 'not to worry', that 'we will definitely get to the bottom of things', and that 'someone will be getting back to you with some answers'.

The Guidance Counselor calls back once again insistent that from her vantage point nothing looks out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, without having had the appropriate training, the counselor is at a loss to properly identify a clear sign of potential suicide in an adolescent.

Within a matter of days, things escalate and the absolute worst thing imaginable occurs. The child commits suicide.

It's at this point that I wish I could say that none of this ever really took place, but unfortunately, this is not fiction. This is real life. On December 4th, 2005, my daughter, Kristina Calco, ended her young life.

When I look back at things now, it seems so unreal that no one thought it out of the ordinary that a parent of a 4.0 honor student with no prior history of problems might drive in off the street looking for help. But not one person was familiar with the signs of potential suicide in an adolescent, including myself.

As a final blow, shortly after Kristina's death, we discovered that back in May 2005 one 9^th grade class at Kristina's school was not quite ready for the 4 day long intensive Gatekeepers Depression/Suicide Awareness training. Evidently, this class had fallen behind in their curriculum and so 'didn't have the necessary time'. As a result, their teacher cancelled the training. Unfortunately, this was Kristina's class.

On July 20^th, a new Michigan Law (HB 4375) was enacted which backs the efforts of the YSPSBG by 'encouraging' the board of a school district to provide age-appropriate, as well as professional development for school personnel, concerning the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and depression and the protective factors that help prevent suicide. This new law further calls for those school districts providing such instruction to notify the parents about the instruction being provided.

Ours has been a true tragedy in every sense of the word, a real life 'series of unfortunate events', if you will. But even with this tragedy and the enactment of a state law 'encouraging' action, will things change? What will it take to 'encourage' school districts to adopt effective evidence based suicide prevention programs? Perhaps knowing the details of what happened to an innocent 15 year old girl can impart on at least one community a sense of how critical it is to find out.