Tulare and Kern Counties have some of the highest teen suicide rates in the state and suicide rates for teenage girls are at a 40-year high.

In effort to address this startling statistic, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) and state legislators from other areas with high rates of youth suicide co-authored a bill to help turn the tide of teen suicides. 

On Feb. 20, Sen. Hurtado, along with Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) and Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose), introduced SB 331, which will require that all California counties develop a suicide prevention plan while focusing on the staggering rise in deaths among adolescents. Read more