Schools need to step up to fight a rise in suicides among black children

“Between 1993 and 2012 suicide rates doubled among black youngsters ages 5-11, while rates declined among white children in same age group, according to a 2015 article published in the academic journal JAMA Pediatrics. The suicide rate cited in that study is roughly twice as high as for black children as it is for their white peers. In absolute numbers, that’s 657 young black children — 553 boys and 104 girls — who took their own lives.”