News
April 19, 2019
Student death: how App State communicates after tragic events Moss Brennan | @MosBren | News Editor Editor’s note: This article explains App State’s protocol for releasing information about student deaths. However, the article discusses mental health and suicide, which may trigger some readers. If you or someone you know is struggling, reach out to the Counseling Center at 828262-3180 or call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-2738255.
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he 2019 spring semester has not been without the loss of life on App State’s campus. Three students have died. In the 2014-15 academic year, App State sent out campus-wide emails if a student died. That year, nine students died. In 2013-14, seven. The year before that, eight. “We just did what we had done before,” Chief Communications
Officer Megan Hayes said. “And what that year taught us is that we can’t afford to do that.” Hayes said App State communications after a student death are intentional and the university needs to understand the implications of those communications. During the 2014-15 academic year, App State started to review the policy for when a student dies. That summer, App State created the Student Death Protocol.
The old way isn’t always best
“We got a ton of calls from people saying, ‘Why are you sending me this information?’” Assistant Dean of Students Alan Rasmussen said. “‘You just made my day horrible’ or ‘This just reminded me of my cousin who passed away.’” The Dean of Students office received similar calls after campuswide notifications of a student’s death were sent to students. Rasmussen said students walked into the office crying even if they didn’t have a relationship with the student; they still felt the impact. The decision to stop sending campus-wide notifications was based on student safety and how App State wanted to remember its students. Another intentional decision Hayes said they made is not stating the cause of death. “We made a choice Moss Brennan | @MosBren to define students by Coordinator for Student Mental Wellness Elisabeth Cavallaro and Coordinator for Student Social what they contributed in Wellness Kyra Patel pose at the Wellness and their lives, and that’s how Prevention Services table during a fundraiser. Cawe’re going to talk about vallaro helped create the Student Death Protocol after the 2014-15 academic year. the students,” Hayes
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Efrain Arias-Medina Jr. | @eam.creations
The Student Memorial Plaque is located on the first floor of the B.B. Dougherty Administration Building. The plaque lists the names of App State students who have died.
said. “That was a really important choice for us to make, and we all felt very, very strongly about that when we were developing that protocol.” Hayes said the only person who can determine the cause of an unattended death in North Carolina is the medical examiner. Hayes said that if anybody is in potential danger on campus, they will be alerted immediately. “Sometimes it might have typos in it because that’s how fast they’re getting it out,” Hayes said. “They care about letting people know immediately.” When a student dies, the way App State communicates is intentional for safety reasons. “If a person gets a message about someone that they didn’t know, that can tap into some of that person’s own fears or concerns or own background and life experiences,” Director of the Counseling Center Christopher Hogan said.
Those communications, and media coverage, can lead to an unintentional effect called suicide contagion. “Suicide contagion, in a nutshell, is when we have a highprofile death by suicide and it’s reported in the media in a glorifying way or a dramatic kind of sensationalized way,” Coordinator for Student Mental Wellness Elisabeth Cavallaro said. “It can then lead to more suicides in that community.” Cavallaro was part of the team that created the Student Death Protocol. She stressed that suicide contagion affects people with suicidal ideation. “The memorializing death can be very scary and create a safety risk for those that are actively engaging in suicidal ideation or at risk for suicide themselves,” Rasmussen said. “Any type of death, the memorialization broadcasted can lead to a completion. And that’s the scariest part. That’s what we
mean by safety.” Instead of sending out a campus-wide notification, the university now sends a notification to people who Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs J.J. Brown calls the “ripple effect.” Those connections could include siblings, roommates, clubs and organizations the student was involved in, and students in their majors. “That’s a phrase that Megan (Hayes), and other folks, have heard me say for a long time. So what I mean by ripple effect is, what are those connections? “We pull in the department chair of which they were majoring in because a lot of times, there’s connections, as well and again thinking about the department where that student may know individuals and the faculty in that department.” The student’s connections are compiled in a Student Postvention Response Team meeting, convened by the Dean of Students Office.
