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A Durham County survey reported that Latino high school students are twice as likely to attempt suicide as their black and white peers, but no similar trends have been reported in the Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school systems.
The study, which anonymously polled 392 Durham County high school students, found that 32 percent of the Latino students who responded had attempted suicide in the last year, while 15 percent of black and white students attempted suicide in the same time period.
The study is part of the Durham County Public Health Department's annual Community Health Assessment.
Another recent study was the Youth Risk Behavior survey, conducted every two years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2007 YRBS reported a suicide attempt rate of 18.3 percent for Latino students statewide and 17.8 percent in the central region of the state. The rates for black students were 12.6 percent statewide and 11.9 percent regionally; for white students they were 12.5 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively.
No similar surveys exist at the local level in the Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school systems.
"As far as the public school system goes, we do a lot of surveys, but we really haven't done any type of survey like that," said Jeff Reilly, counseling services coordinator for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Orange County Schools spokesman Mike Gilbert said that the school system is working on an assessment of suicidal behavior but that no surveys had been conducted yet.
"We've seen no increases in what we would see as spikes in suicidal ideation," he said.
In Durham County, the surveys' results have raised interest in the community.
"The leadership in the community is very interested in the service providers for school-aged kids getting together to talk about the results of the survey and what can be done to mitigate some of these behaviors," said Gayle Harris, assistant director of the Durham County Public Health Department.
"Hopefully in March we'll bring people together to talk about the document and set some priorities."
Harris also said the results of the surveys might not be entirely accurate.
"The behaviors are behaviors that we couldn't observe - so it may be some exaggeration, it may be some under-reported activities," she said.
"You have to take it as self-reported data."
But she said the survey has been proven by time.
"It has been found to be a valid instrument," Harris said.
The survey was administered in Spanish and English.
Harris said difficult experiences as a Latino in the United States, especially as a recent immigrant, might contribute to the higher suicide attempt rate among these students.
Harris talked about the importance of education young students about accepting diversity and the need to make sure all students' needs are being met so that they can be more stable.
"One teen death is too many."
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