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State Senator Kay Floyd of Oklahoma City wins unanimous approval for Senate Bill 175, allowing schools to offer suicide awareness and prevention training on a yearly basis.

Floyd passed legislation in 2021 mandating training every two years, but since has decided to give schools an additional option to do the program yearly.  The measure was approved on Monday.

In a statement, Floyd said:

“When I ran my bill two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had released data showing suicide had become the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24. Since then, we’ve learned that depression and suicidal thoughts among children and teens worsened during the pandemic.  My legislation this year simply makes it clear that our schools can offer this free and effective suicide prevention and awareness training more frequently if they choose.”

Floyd pointed out the material for the training is provided by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services at no cost to Oklahoma school districts.

“One of the most popular training programs available only takes an hour to complete, but that one hour could give teachers and staff the knowledge they need to better identify students who may be thinking of suicide before it’s too late,” Floyd said.

SB 175 now moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.  The House principal author is Representative Marcus McEntire, a Republican from Duncan.