The federal government has awarded a $218,000 grant to the Pine Ridge School for suicide prevention.
Bill Mendoza is with the U.S. Department of Education. He says the grant money will help restore a learning environment at the school.
“Sometimes when theses crisis happen in this way there are not ready resources to be able to handle the influx or counseling needs for school-wide impact. Not only the students are affected by this, but adults as well. And what we’ve understood from Pine Ridge School is that they've had to virtually put all academics on hold if you will because of needing to address the impact of the counseling needs for these schools,” says Mendoza.
Part of the grant will be used to hire more counselors and social workers for the children affected by suicide.
Mendoza says he hopes Pine Ridge is able to set a foundation for how other tribes handle times of crisis.