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Suicide prevention campaign criticized as half-baked plan

Forms asking students whether they intend to commit suicide, and if so, when and how, will soon be distributed in junior-high schools nationwide, Ministry of Education officials said yesterday, despite fierce criticism from parents, lawmakers and students, who called the form yet another example of a half-baked plan by the ministry.

Called the "Say No to Suicide" agreement, the form will be distributed to "high-risk" students, asking them to detail their suicide plans, ministry spokesman Lee Po-yen (李泊言) said.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, a member of the ministry's Student Affairs Committee, Ke Hui-chen (柯慧貞), said the form would be part of a screening process to help school officials focus on students most at risk of killing themselves.

PLEDGES SOUGHT

Students will be asked to sign a pledge not to commit suicide, Ke said, adding that only students who had deliberately hurt themselves in the past, or who had otherwise displayed suicidal tendencies, would be asked to fill out the form and sign the agreement.

Education officials, however, declined yesterday to say when the "Say No to Suicide" agreement would make its debut in schools.

Taipei County Parents' Association director Lu Hung-jie (盧鴻頡), however, called the form "absurd."

CRITICISM

"I was talking about the form with a group of school principals, and we think it's ridiculous to ask a student directly whether he or she intends to commit suicide," Lu told the Taipei Times yesterday. "Schools should be relying on long-term observations by trained counselors in determining who's at risk for suicide."

Joanna Feng (馮喬蘭), executive director of the Humanistic Education Foundation, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to improving primary education, agreed with Lu, saying that trained mental health counselors should be involved in determining which students are at risk of killing themselves.

But, she added, if the forms were administered by trained professionals, they could give high-risk youth additional opportunities to seek help.

"We're waiting to see how this ["Say No to Suicide" program] is handled," Feng said by telephone yesterday.

REBUTTAL

Seeking to calm critics yesterday, Vice Minister of Education Chou Tsan-der (周燦德) said the ministry was discussing ways to increase funding for psychological counseling services in middle and high schools, while Ke said that the form was merely one component in a complex screening process.
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