BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
An expert in suicide prevention said Palo Alto students should be taught how to recognize warning signs in their friends as a way to prevent more suicides.
“If it was up to me, everybody in Palo Alto would be talking about prevention everywhere — schools, community centers, doctor’s offices — everywhere,” said Dr. Scott Poland, director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Official communication about suicides is inconsistent in Palo Alto. Starting in April last year, Caltrain stopped telling the public about deaths on the tracks, claiming it was an attempt to stop copycat suicides. But word gets out after the school district sends out a statement announcing a student death and offering phone numbers and counseling. Palo Alto City Council members sometimes acknowledge a suicide at a council meeting.
Poland has visited 17 communities after a suicide cluster, including a conference at Stanford in March 2015. His message is the same: It takes a village.
School leaders, city officials, parents, survivor groups, medical and mental health professionals and law enforcement all need to come together to raise awareness.
“More resources, more discussion — but so many people are afraid,” Poland said in an interview.
The Palo Alto Unified School District has seen four teen suicides in the last two years: Anriya Wang, 16, on Feb. 20, 2024; Ash He, 15, on March 4, 2025; Emily Fiedel, 17, on Aug. 9; and Summer Devi Mehta, 17, on Feb. 3.
Kids are more likely to imitate the behavior of their peers, and the contagion is worse because of social media, Poland said.
Kids should be asked
Doctors should ask kids about their mental health at every visit, and school districts should have high school students fill out a seven-question “signs of suicide” screening form that has them name a trusted adult, Poland said.
Many students who die by suicide have discussed their plans with friends, so it’s important that students learn how to respond — by validating their friend’s feelings and getting them help, and not with a pep talk or downplaying, Poland said.
School leaders should talk to students in small groups to get honest questions and a better understanding on how they’re experiencing recent suicides, Poland said.
Who’s at risk?
“The bottom line question is always this: Who is now most at risk? And it’s not the closest friend,” Poland said. “It’s other students who have had their own sad circumstances, and they’ve thought about suicide.
Now that somebody has done it, barriers and inhibitions are down. They might somehow be viewing their life as parallel.”
Parents should put limits on screen time, especially late at night, and model good behavior by not having cell phones consume their own lives, Poland said.
“Let them be little kids as long as possible … The technology should be treated as a privilege, not a right,” Poland said.
Not enough research
There isn’t enough research on what causes a suicide cluster, but some factors are bullying, relationship violence, access to lethal means and parents not getting help for their children, Poland said In his trainings, Poland talks about “suicide-proofing” the home by locking up liquor, medications and guns. But preventing access to the Caltrain tracks is more complicated, he said.
Having security guards at Palo Alto’s crossings isn’t a bad idea, but the community also needs to figure out who needs help before they reach that point, Poland said.