METRO VANCOUVER – A flood of media coverage about Amanda Todd’s recent suicide has prompted concern among Vancouver school trustees that journalists are not following guidelines for best practices in reporting such deaths.
At a meeting Monday night, they will consider a motion from chairwoman Patti Bacchus that recommends the board of education write to the BC Press Council, the BC Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters urging them to ensure province-wide adherence to guidelines from the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA), the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention and U.S. Centres for Disease Control.
The motion also suggests the board issue a news release calling on B.C. media outlets to comply with the guidelines.
Bacchus described it as a safety issue. “Research shows that certain types of media stories about suicide can contribute to imitative behaviour, particularly among youth,” she tweeted Monday morning.
Exceptional publicity surrounding the death of the Port Coquitlam teen produced a surge in suicidal thoughts by vulnerable young people across the country, according to two trauma experts.
“Provincially and nationally, we have faced a significant increase in suicide ideation,” Theresa Campbell, president of Safer Schools Together and a trainer for the province’s new Erase Bullying strategy, said in a recent interview.
Kevin Cameron of the Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment & Trauma Response, who is also involved with Erase Bullying, agreed. “Of all the high-profile suicides that I’ve dealt with, we have never seen before this level of symptom development across the country.”
Amanda’s suicide in October was not only covered extensively by traditional media but it received unprecedented attention via social media, partly because of her disturbing YouTube video, which went viral.
Campbell, who is also safe schools manager in Surrey, said she’s never seen anything like it. In addition to regular reporting by the mainstream media, there was the “viral messaging through kids – and some not-so-nice messaging, which has also been difficult to deal with,” she added.
That’s not to suggest that all kids are more likely to consider suicide now than before the 15-year-old’s death, they said. But her online message about the way she was harassed and bullied before she died is sending a signal to other at-risk kids that suicide might be their only option.
A spokesman for the Vancouver school district said staff noticed an upswing in the number of reports from students of mental health challenges immediately after Todd’s suicide but levels have since returned to normal. “I wouldn’t say this upswing is a trend, but from our perspective it was expected considering the widespread media attention that’s been focused on the topic of bullying recently,” communications manager Kurt Heinrich said in an email.
“The other thing that’s been noticed . . . is a heightened consciousness around the issue of bullying and mental health among many students, which is certainly quite positive.”
During a radio interview Monday, Bacchus acknowledged that social media also contributed to reports and discussions about Todd’s death in October and said intense competition to cover the story meant the guidelines from professionals went “out the window”
She said she was also troubled by the handling of a story last week that dozens of children in Vancouver had formed a suicide pact, adding that said she hopes the motion will prompt a discussion about how journalists cover youth suicides.
The CPA guidelines urge media outlets to avoid details about the death, photos of the deceased, the word “suicide” in headlines, admiration of the deceased, repetitive and excessive coverage, the idea that suicide is unexplainable and front-page coverage.
Bacchus’s motion also calls on government to:
– Increase school and community resources to address mental health issues among youth.
– Restore funding for programs that encourage social connectedness, such as Roots of Empathy, MindUp and Second Step.
– Increase funding to allow release time for school staff so they may learn more about how to deal with children at risk of self-harm.
– Provide funding so the board may restore its a social, emotional, learning consultant position that was eliminated in 2010 due to a budget shortfall.
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