School Shake-Ups: Bills Call For Suicide Prevention, New Classes

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Lawmakers are set to discuss several bills relating to Rhode Island's school at the Senate Education Committee meeting Wednesday evening. Proposals range from the need for suicide prevention training for teachers to a call for mandatory cursive writing classes in elementary schools.

Sen. Dawn Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown) has introduced legislation that would create training programs for teachers and other school faculty in suicide prevention and awareness. The bill is named for Nathan Bruno, a 15-year-old student in Portsmouth who took his own life in 2018.

“We are so grateful to the friends of Nathan Bruno who, in the wake of tragedy, looked for ways to help prevent other young people from suffering the way Nathan did. This bill is really their bill, and the change it will bring is a great way to honor Nathan’s memory.” Sen. Euer said.

Bruno's fellow classmates, who founded the organization "Be Great For Nate," approached Euer and other Senate lawmakers to propose the bill.

Sen. Sandra Cano (D-Dist. 8, Pawtucket) has called for required financial literacy classes in Rhode Island's public high schools. In an opinion piece posted on Patch in February, Sen. Cano said that teaching these skills is vital to putting young people on the path to financial success in the future.

"It is time for Rhode Island to join the majority of the other states in our country so that we stop failing our children by sending them out into the world without these basic tools," Cano wrote. "Their future success depends upon us to educate and prepare them for the world and this is not possible without teaching them financial literacy."

In a similar vein, Sen. Hanna M. Gallo (D-Dist. 27, Cranston, West Warwick) has introduced a bill that would make civics classes mandatory for public high school students. A civics law is already on the books in Rhode Island, and Sen. Gallo's law would build on it by requiring that high school students complete at least one half-credit of civics or social studies education, starting with the graduating class of 2020.

Meanwhile, Sen. Elaine J. Morgan (R-Dist. 34, Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond, West Greenwich) has introduced a bill that would require cursive writing classes in elementary school across the state, for an average of about 20 minutes per school day.

The final bill, sponsored by Sen. Frank A. Ciccone III (D-Dist. 7, Providence, North Providence), would create a world language and dual language immersion program in Rhode Island's schools. Immersion programs help students learn a second language faster by completely surrounding them with the language. World languages, meanwhile, expand the traditional romance languages taught in schools to include sign language, Native American languages and others.

READ MORE: Opinion: RI Students Deserve To Have Financial Literacy Classes