LIVERMORE — Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Maine’s young people and the 10th leading cause of death among Maine people of all ages.

Livermore Elementary School guidance counselor Grace Eaton knows firsthand the pain of losing a loved one by suicide. Her son, Glen Gilchrist, died by suicide in December 1997.

“The pain never goes away,” she said in an interview last week. “You learn to deal with it, but it never goes away.”

The Maine Legislature is considering a bill that would increase suicide awareness and prevention in the state’s public schools.

LD 609 is being presented by House District 87 Rep. Paul Gilbert, D-Jay, and is being co-sponsored by 103 Maine legislators. The co-sponsors include House District 81 Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls,; District 14 Sen. John Patrick, D-Rumford, who represents Jay and other towns in the Legislature; and Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, who represents Fayette and other Kennebec and Franklin County towns.

“This is the big one. I can’t imagine anything more important in my time in the Legislature,” Gilbert said.

Last February, Eaton contacted Gilbert and urged him to consider a bill that would provide suicide prevention awareness education for all school personnel. The two met at McDonalds.

“We started talking; we were there for an hour and a half,” Gilbert said. “I told her that I would work on this, but I wasn’t running for re-election.”

As it turned out, he changed his mind, ran for re-election in his district and won. Gilbert then set about putting the bill together. He had an early supporter in Maine House Speaker Mark Eves. Also, Gilbert made it a point to seek out Republicans for support.

“This is not a partisan issue. It’s bipartisan,” he emphasized. “We were trying to figure out who we could bring on board.”

Nancy Thompson of Cape Elizabeth was running for the Maine House as a Republican, while Ruth Summers, also a Republican, was running for the Senate. Both pledged their support for the legislation.

Eaton noted that Thompson had lost a son by suicide, and that Summers’ father died by suicide. They had connected with one another through the Maine Suicide Prevention Program. Although both lost their races, they have been instrumental in contacting Republicans to sign on to the bill, Gilbert said.

The bill requires the Department of Education to adopt rules on standards for schools and school administrative units for suicide prevention education and training, according to the summary of the document. The training and education will include suicide prevention awareness training for all personnel and more advanced suicide prevention and intervention training for at least two people per school district.

If passed, the legislation would provide one to two hours of training for all school personnel on what to watch for that could indicate a student is contemplating suicide.

“The reason I wanted to go wall-to-wall is a lot of kids connect with a cafeteria worker, a janitor, an ed tech, a bus driver, or a coach,” Gilbert said.

Some had suggested to Gilbert that he include an amendment in the bill dealing with bullying. However, he noted, “Not everyone who completes suicide has been bullied.”

Many legislators asked to be co-sponsors on the bill.

Another supporter is Gov. Paul LePage.

“After the ‘State of the State’ address, I thought about it, and the governor said he was willing to work with anyone across the aisle,” Gilbert said.

The next day, he asked for a meeting with LePage.

“I told them what it was about. They said they would get back to me,” he said.

He was scheduled for a meeting the following day.

“I didn’t get a third of the way through my spiel, and he asked me, ‘Paul, have you got a copy of the bill?’ He signed it saying he supported the bill,”  Gilbert said. “He turned to his Chief of Staff and said to him to work with the Department of Education on it. He was very cordial.”

When asked about how the suicide awareness and prevention training would be funded, Gilbert said they were looking at grants. The training sessions are accessible online, and can be done by a webinar.

“We are going to propose a way to do this with very little funding,” Eaton said.

If the bill becomes law, the training would begin in 2014-15 for secondary schools and all new hires at Maine schools, and 2015-16 at elementary and middle schools.

The bill has been assigned to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. A hearing on it is scheduled in the next few weeks.

Gilbert said he wasn’t sure exactly when a vote would take place. A two-thirds vote is required in both houses of the Legislature to pass it.

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