A year ago during September’s National Suicide Prevention Month, Jonathan Scott, the resiliency coordinator for the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, circulated the post’s Resiliency Newsletter to faculty featuring the month’s theme: “You are a light in somebody’s life.” Scott, an Army civilian employee, coordinated suicide prevention workshops for the month, including “Suicide Prevention for Families,” and “Value of Life Training.”
Less than three weeks after the awareness events concluded, Scott, 36, died by suicide on Oct. 17, according to a death certificate dated Feb. 5, 2024, issued at the conclusion of an investigation into his death by the Monterey County Coroner’s Office.
It was the fourth suicide of a DLI employee since 2022 – three educators died by suicide during that year alone. In the past 12 months there have been two deaths by suicide among students, according to a DLI report obtained by the Weekly.
“It’s really hard to have a closing statement other than the guy in charge of stopping suicides at DLI committed suicide. That’s horrible,” says Matt Snowden, former DLI faculty president, now living in Texas. Snowden says he interacted with Scott on resiliency efforts when he was still working at DLI.
“Resiliency” is the term the military uses for the psychological skill to deal with adversity and thrive in high-stress situations, and is used in conjunction with suicide prevention efforts. According to an article published on the U.S. Army website on May 1, DLI invested in a resiliency effort that began in April 2023 in response to “behavioral health challenges” at the institute. DLI chaplains created a “three-phase joint resiliency program” that was rolled out across the entire institute.
According to the article, the organizers presented at over 60 large sessions and more than 34 small group sessions, with a combined total of 750 hours of individual counseling. One chaplain was quoted as saying, “We think the program is working.”
In the past 12 months, there were over 50 instances of suicidal ideation among students, seven attempts and two completions, according to a report shared with staff on Sept. 13. Military and academic stress, along with family issues were cited as main contributors to some of the incidences.
“DLI is aggressively taking on the challenge of suicide prevention,” a spokesperson writes by email. He adds that year-round efforts seek to help students, servicemembers and civilian employees. Additional training is planned for supervisors on how to address mental health and suicide, as well as establishing trauma response teams for military and civilian workers.
The Department of Defense requires annual mandatory suicide prevention training for servicemembers, but within the last year announced that the training is optional for civilian employees.
In 2022, the most recent statistics available, the suicide rate among active duty members increased by 3 percent, according to the Department of Defense, although they noted it was below 2020’s average. Most suicides were among young enlisted men, the report said.