Does Rancho Cucamonga have a teen suicide problem?

Rancho Cucamonga has seen few minors commit suicide over the past decade, but Chaffey Joint Union High School District officials have no precise data on how many of its students would consider suicide.

In September And Octobertwo Los Osos High School students committed suicide on the 210 Freeway at Haven Avenue. The deaths echo four deaths in the fall of 2018when three students from the Chaffey District and a high school student from the Alta Loma Elementary School District committed suicide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021 suicide was the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 14 and the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 24.

Rancho Cucamonga typically sees few such deaths, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. In five of the past ten years, none of the deaths of minors in Rancho Cucamonga have been ruled a suicide by the coroner’s office:

2014: 0 suicides
2015: 0 suicides
2016: 0 suicides
2017: 2 suicides
2018: 3 suicides
2019: 1 suicide
2020: 1 suicide
2021: 0 suicides
2022: 0 suicides
2023: 1 suicide
2024, from October 21: 2 suicides

That’s what the U.S. Census Bureau estimates In 2022, approximately 44,207 people aged 19 or younger lived in Rancho Cucamonga. According to the California Department of Education, the Chaffey district educates approximately 22,628 students from Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario and Montclair.

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Following the 2018 deaths, the Southern California News Group analyzed data from the California School Climate, Health, and Learning Surveyswhich are given to about 70% of students in the state’s 1,026 public school districts.

In one of the CalSCHLS surveys, given only to ninth- and eleventh-grade students and students from non-traditional high schools, students—who answer the questions anonymously—are asked if they have seriously considered to commit suicide. Between the school years 2013-2014 and the school years 2016-2017 approximately 18% of high school students surveyed in California public school districts expressed suicidal ideation. These figures were roughly consistent with those available at both the state and national levels.

But it’s not clear how many Chaffey district students feel the same way. That’s because while districts are required to collect data on school climate, there is no requirement that the CalSCHLS surveys, or similar surveys, be used.

Chaffey District is not distributing the CalSCHLS surveys, in favor of a homegrown survey that does not ask students about suicidal ideation.

That’s by design, according to Jessica Kachaenchai, the district’s assistant superintendent for instructional services.

“Since these surveys are completed anonymously, asking such a question poses significant ethical and practical challenges,” Kachaenchai wrote in an email. “One of the main concerns is that if a student were to report suicidal ideation, the anonymity of the survey would make it difficult or impossible to identify, monitor, and provide immediate support to the student.”

Instead, the district’s survey collects “broad feedback on the district’s climate and culture, specifically how well we are doing in promoting a sense of safety, belonging, access to mental health care and other related topics,” wrote Kachaenchai.

District staff asks about students experiencing suicidal ideation when assessing students in crisis or evaluating them for other mental health services.

The number of teenagers considering suicide is already known, Kachaenchai wrote.

“Instead, we are focusing on proactive and preventative measures to address suicidal thoughts and have established protocols to respond when students report experiencing suicidal thoughts,” she concluded.

Asking students anonymously about suicidal thoughts is a common practice, according to John Blosnich, assistant professor of Social Change and Innovation at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Blosnich also serves on the Los Angeles County Child and Adolescent Suicide Review Team, which analyzes data trends and makes recommendations to prevent suicides in the county.

“The CA Health Kids Survey asks this question. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey also includes this item. On the adult side, the National Survey of Drug Use and Health asks about suicidal ideation in the past year,” Blosnich wrote in an email.

“If we don’t ask, we won’t know,” he added. “And the field does not consider it unethical to ask about suicidal ideation without a way to track an individual.”

According to Blosnich, standard practice for those administering surveys that ask about suicidal thoughts or attempts is to provide all survey participants with suicide prevention tools.

“In my opinion, asking about suicidal ideation and not providing resources would be unethical,” he said. “But asking, in my view, is a core function of public health for community health.”

Using high-level data to get a sense of what’s happening, as the Chaffey district does, “may not provide the most accurate picture of what’s happening at a specific school,” Blosnich added.

But trying to do what’s right for all parties while preventing more teen suicides is difficult, he concluded.

“I sympathize with the (district) being in a tough spot,” he wrote. “Suicide is incredibly complex.”

How to get help

If you or someone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, there are mental health resources available, including free and low-cost services. They include: