Suicide Prevention Training Now Required By Teachers

All Arizona school faculty will soon need to complete suicide prevention training after Gov. Doug Ducey announced he will sign a bill to make it a requirement.

“I normally don’t comment on legislation until it gets to my desk, but this is a subject that just is way too important,” Ducey said. “We’re seeing way too much of this among our youth and inside our school system.”

S.B. 1468, also known as the Mitch Warnock Act, requires that all faculty who work with students in grades 6-12 be trained. It will go into effect for the 2020-2021 school year.


In 2016, Warnock committed suicide. His parents, both teachers, have pushed for the legislation to pass.

Last year, a similar bill was introduced into the state Legislature, but did not reach the voting stage.

The required training would include identifying the warning signs of suicidal behavior and implementing intervention and referral techniques.

In 2017, Arizona lost 50 youths to suicide.

“There are a lot of kids that are down, that are depressed, that are hurting themselves and taking their lives,” Ducey said. “So the Mitch Warnock Act is going to train teachers … how to deal with this, what the threat factors there are around dysfunction, in the family, trouble at home, the signs that young people give, so that we can help these kids and turn this around.”

Last week, the bill passed the state House and Senate unanimously before being sent to Ducey’s desk on May 2.

In order to help improve the mental health of students, Ducey also wants to increase the number of school counselors in the state. Ducey’s budget proposes $12 million that would be used to hire 224 more counselors for Arizona schools.

“We need more counselors, and we also need teachers and educators to be aware of the warning signs inside the school,” he said. “We want to try to address this from every angle possible.”