Riverton • Parents showed up in hundreds Tuesday to hear a national suicide-prevention expert speak at Jordan School District, a community alarmed by a spate of youth suicides this school year.
More than 200 parents, many with notebooks and pens in hand, attended the evening presentation in Riverton by Scott Poland, a psychology professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, on strategies for identifying and preventing youth suicide.
District staff brought in Poland as part of its response to five students enrolled at Herriman High dying by suicide since summer. State officials also say they’re investigating several other youth suicide cases in that southwestern corner of Salt Lake County, though they said it is too early to know whether the incidents are linked by anything other than location.