At least 12 Stark County teens have died by suicide since last August. At the request of state and local health officials, a special team of investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has arrived to look into why.
Stark County Health Commissioner Kirk Norris says the CDC has been conducting an on-going study of teen suicide around the country.
It just completed an investigation of an outbreak of young people taking their own lives in Santa Clara County, Calif.
The purpose do the Stark County visit "is to help stakeholders and the community to reach out to parents and children, and for sure, strengthen the support of relationships.
"But also to provide information to allow for the creation of future suicide-prevention programming. This is the big thing that we’re looking for in the visit.”
Norris says he does not know how long the CDC’s investigation will take, but the findings will be made known when they’re available.
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