b'resiliency and coping skills, and helping to decrease the stigma associated with seeking help for mental health concerns. However, schools should strive to treat all deaths in the same way. Having one approach for memorializinga student who died of cancer or in a car accident and a different approach for a student who died by suicide reinforces stigma and may be deeply and unfairly painful to the students family and friends. Refer to the American Foundation for Suicide Preventions After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools resource, listed in the Resources section, for sample notification statements for students and parents or guardians, sample media statements, and other model language. Finally, it is important for schools to encourage parents and guardians to monitor student social media pagesafter a death by suicide. Students often turn to social networking websites or apps as outlets for communicatinginformation and expressing their thoughts and feelings about the death. Parents and guardians should beadviced to monitor social media accounts for warning signs of sucicidal behavior. Students should be encouragedto report concerning social media posts, such as tweets, statuses, and Instagram posts.Best practices regarding safe messaging should be used in all communications about suicide,on social media, and in memorials. This is in order to help reduce the risk of contagion. For school personnel who are concerned that talking about suicide may contribute to contagion, research has shown that talking about mental health and suicide in a nonjudgmental, open way that encourages dialogue and help- seeking does not elevate risk.Model School District Policy on Suicide Prevention | Model Language, Commentary, and Resources 24'