Seattle Schools Community Forum

Terribly disturbing news this week that middle-schoolers are now as likely to die from suicide as car crashes.  From the NY Times :

Interesting story on NBC last night about one of the members of Cheap Trick and his use of music to help his autistic son.  He's started a group called Rock Your Speech . Also from STAT, this story, Is the dramatic rise in autism tapering off? CDC officials found that 1 in every 68 children in the country has an autism spectrum disorder, a rate unchanged from the last CDC survey  two years ago. And while the new findings may help counter claims that half of all children in the United States will be autistic within a decade, it’s too soon to say whether the rate has reached a plateau, CDC officials cautioned. Here's yet another great story about the move to bring back more CTE (Career and Technical Education). The Tri-City Herald reports that the Kennewick School District's Tri-Tech Skills Center students built two "tiny" houses that will be put up for sale along with all other district surplus items.

An excellent article on teen suicide from a parent and psychiatrist in Palo Alto, California after the suicide of high school student there. What is notable about Palo Alto is that it is in Silicon Valley and both high schools have experienced a fairly steady rate of suicides over the last several years.  It is an area of high expectations and high hopes and that may play a part in why teens kill themselves. The author, Adam Strassberg, gives this advice: There is no single cause of suicide -- the act can arise from any combination of multiple factors -- biological, environmental, psychological and situational. As a community, we agree that whatever can be done to mitigate these factors must be done; where we disagree, however, is where one might expect: What does "whatever can be done" entail? Our public debate continues -- in community meetings, in online forums, in newspaper letters, in school board and city hall meetings. But for me, on line at Starbucks, i...

A great story from Huffington Post on the " Buddy Bench ."   Second-grader Christian Bucks, of York, Pa., knew that some of his classmates felt lonely during recess , and he decided to do something about it. His simple, utterly heartwarming solution was to install a playground "buddy bench."  As reported by the York Daily Record, a buddy bench is a designated seating area where students feeling lonely or upset can seek camaraderie . The area is customarily painted in bright, inviting colors. Christian told the Record that he hopes the bench will help "grow our dream circle of friends." Next up in what's coming up in the next Legislative session .  For education, it'll be more of the same from Senator Tom & Company.  From the Times: The state Senate majority caucus congratulated itself Tuesday for surviving a year and vowed to pursue legislation that did not pass last session, including changes to K-12 education and workers com...