On Dec. 30, 2016, 12-year-old foster child Katelyn Nicole Davis broadcast her own hanging on a live stream social media site. Before it was taken down, the video was seen by thousands of people. In 2009, seven-year-old Gabriel Myers hanged himself in the shower of his foster home. In 2014, six-year-old Kendra Johnson died by suicide after hanging herself with a jump rope from her bunk bed. A lawsuit, filed by her grandmother, alleged that Kendra was removed from her mother’s care and placed in a Minnesota foster care home where her suicidal ideations had been ignored by the child welfare system. These anecdotes demonstrate the tragic outcomes experienced by some youth in out-of-home care.
The rate of suicide among youth, ages 10 to 24, between 2000 and 2007 was approximately 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people. By 2017, the rate had increased 56%, reaching 10.6 deaths per 100,000. While suicides of children 12-years-old and younger are rare, the numbers seem to be growing. Recent figures indicate that youth in foster care die by suicide at a rate much higher than usual when compared to the general population.
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