When the North Dakota Legislative Council meets on May 15, it will have the option of directing a committee to study how schools and school districts can better identify and help students who may be high risks to attempt suicide.

Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, said the 17 lawmakers on the Legislative Council have to whittle down more than 100 potential studies to about 40 after every legislative session.

One study resolution passed by the House and Senate during the 2007 Legislature was Dever's Senate Concurrent Resolution 4032, which would study suicide prevention efforts that could be implemented in North Dakota schools. The idea for the study came to Dever from a constituent whose son was one of 15 males ages 10 to 19 who committed suicide in 2005.

Stephanie Sauers' son, Chance, committed suicide in 2005 at the age of 19.

Since then, Sauers and her family have tried to find ways to raise awareness about teen suicide and bullying.

Dever said Sauers and Mark LoMurray, director of the North Dakota Suicide Prevention Project, testified before legislative committees to get the resolution passed. For Sauers, it was a first time speaking in public about her son's death.

"To talk to people who don't know about it was hard,"Sauers said, adding that she saw several people crying during her testimony. "There was just a lot of support there."

According to the 2005 North Dakota Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 15 percent of North Dakota high school students and 14 percent of seventh- and eighth-graders have considered suicide. The same survey reported 12 percent of high school students had planned a suicide and 6 percent attempted suicide. It said 8 percent of seventh- and eighth-graders had planned a suicide and 5 percent had attempted it.

Dever said the resolution will give legislators a chance to talk about suicide and related issues. "The Legislature just hasn't taken a good look at it," he said.

Sauers hopes the study will encourage enhanced training of school officials to notice high-risk behaviors and to start programs that will open dialogues about suicide with students.

"Awareness is the big, key thing," she said.

Her husband, Terry, added that teachers and school officials also should be given the resources to help students who appear to need assistance.

Sauers plans to continue looking for ways to make sure other families don't have to go through what she and her family have gone through since her son's death.

"I'm going to keep pushing forward," she said. "I'm not going to give up."

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny. michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)