AUGUSTA — A measure to help prevent youth suicide secured unanimous backing in the Legislature this week with the goal of preventing other families from going through the heartache that Matt and Rosie Graham of Lewiston felt last year when their depressed 13-year-old daughter Anie killed herself.
The bill requires the Maine Department of Education to create rules mandating that school districts develop suicide prevention protocols. Only about a quarter of Maine’s districts have procedures in place to deal with at-risk children.
Matt Graham said he was grateful the House and Senate each backed the bill sponsored by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston.
“We need to continue to update our practices and policies to make sure we are doing all we can to reduce these tragedies,” Golden said.
Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, said he co-sponsored the bill because, “I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to prevent another family, school or community losing another child to suicide.”
Graham told legislators that last May his daughter “turned in an assignment to her teacher stating she no longer wanted to live,” so his wife was asked to come in to Lewiston Middle School and pick her up. The school’s principal and a counselor told she had to figure out what to do, Graham said.
So she took Anie to a doctor, who sent them home without any advice on how to ensure Anie’s safety, including keeping a constant eye on her.
“That night Anie took her life,” her father said. “We walked into her room to discover what she did to herself: a horrifying image that is now permanently imprinted into our heads.”
Graham said he and his wife “are determined to help and support other parents that find themselves in the same predicament as we would not like other parents to face this harsh and agonizing reality that we as a family now face daily.”
Golden told colleagues, “We may never completely prevent youth suicide, but we can do more. And even if places like Lewiston have the resources to search out the best practices on their own, this is not the case for all Maine school districts.”
He said the measure “should level the playing field by making critical information concerning suicide prevention available throughout the state.”
The Maine Department of Education has offered suicide-prevention protocols to schools for more than 15 years, updating them on a number of occasions.
Matt and Rosie Graham of Lewiston talked last year about the suicide of their 13-year-old daughter Anie. (Sun Journal file photo)
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