Liz Linehan

Should the state install a system that would recommend depression and suicide screenings for young people? The Meriden Record Journal raises the question in its March 27 editorial.

It’s an idea whose time may have come — considering the increasing suicide rates among young people in recent years, and reviews by the Child Fatality Review Panel of seven child suicides in Connecticut last year, including one of an 11-year-old Cheshire girl.

Click here to read more of the editorial.

The legislation is House Bill 7215, AN ACT CONCERNING SCHOOL CLIMATES, to (1) require local and regional boards of education to develop safe school climate policies, (2) require schools to assess school climate, (3) require the Department of Education to develop a social and emotional learning assessment instrument, (4) establish the duties of a safe school climate coordinator, (5) require local and regional boards of education to establish a social and emotional learning and school climate council in place of the existing safe school climate committee, (6) require the Department of Education to develop a model safe school climate policy, and (7) require local and regional boards of education to provide training on the prevention of and intervention in discrimination against and targeted harassment of students.