Drs. Sally Weinstein & Anand Kumar “Op-ed: Schools must prepare to do more to stop teen suicide, bullying.”

High schoolers with suicide risk behaviors are more than 4 times more likely to have experienced cyberbullying than youth who don’t have suicide risk. It’s essential to address bullying at school as part of adolescent suicide prevention.

"Bully Free Zone" sign on a window with a student.

Adolescent suicide and bullying among adolescents are related, severe, and preventable public health problems. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among youth ages 10 to 24. Bullying occurs at alarmingly high rates: 19.5% of high school students reported being bullied on school property in 2019, and 15.7% of high schoolers reported experiencing cyberbullying in the prior 12 months.

Incidents at high schools across the nation have received media coverage in the past decade. In each instance, distraught parents struggled to make sense of what happened and what could have been done differently.