Media messaging about a suicide death

Identify your school’s spokesperson about the suicide death. This person could be a member of the school division communications office, school principal, or other designee. 

The spokesperson will:

• Keep the division-level crisis coordinator and superintendent informed of school actions relating to the death.
• Prepare a statement for media, including the facts of the death, postvention plans, and available resources. The statement will not include confidential information, speculation about victim motivation, means or suicide, or personal family information.
• Answer all media inquiries. If news media report a suicide death, the spokesperson should encourage reporters not to make it a front-page story, not to use photos of the deceased, not to use the word “suicide” in the headline, not to describe the method of suicide, and not to use the phrase “suicide epidemic,” as this may increase the risk of suicide contagion.

No single suicide prevention message works for every situation. Strategic thinking helps you create messages that fit your school’s situation and use resources wisely.

Avoid messages that can increase contagion risk

• Repeated, prominent, or sensational coverage
• Details about suicide method or location
• Portraying suicide as a common or acceptable response to adversity
• Glamorizing or romanticizing suicide
• Presenting simplistic explanations for suicide
• Including personal details that encourage identification with the person who died

Adopt messages that can promote a hopeful narrative

• Carefully review content before sharing it
• Be mindful of safety when sharing stories about individual suicide attempts or deaths
• Make sure data are strategic and prevention focused
• Convey the complex causality of suicide
• Highlight solutions to stigma
• Debunk common myths about suicide
• Convey that prevention works
• Share that help is always available

Designate a member of your crisis team to monitor social media following a student’s death by suicide. 

By partnering with select students to identify and monitor relevant social networking websites and accounts, schools can use social media to share information, offer support to students who may be struggling, and identify students who may be at risk.

Students can:

• Identify which social media platforms are used most frequently by the student body
• Engage their peers in honoring their classmate’s life appropriately and safely
• Inform school or other trusted adults about online communications that may be worrisome or inappropriate

Students recruited to help should know that school staff want to support a healthy response to their peer’s death, not stop communication. They should also know that staff are available to provide support if they see a social media post that indicates someone is at risk of suicide.