Photo by Tracy Clayton.

UPDATE (2:55 p.m.): The statistic regarding student suicide was so startling, we inquired with DCPS for further context. According to DCPS spokesperson Frederick Lewis, the figure comes from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) Survey, which is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and was administered in the District last year by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. According to the results of the YRBS, 9.7 percent of D.C. eighth grade students responded in the affirmative when asked if they had “ever tried to kill themselves.”

The figure on suicide “appear[s] to be accurate,” Lewis said.

ORIGINAL POST: This afternoon, D.C. Public Schools chancellor Kaya Henderson and other officials appeared in front of the D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole to talk about middle school education. And while Henderson was there mainly to present a presentation on how the school district is improving middle school education, the focus will likely fall to some startling statistics which were revealed.

Among the figures that Henderson and DCPS officials quoted:

>> 10 percent of DCPS eight graders have attempted suicide.
>> 18.4 percent of DCPS middle schoolers have missed classes because they didn’t feel safe traveling to school.
>> 13.9 percent of middle school students were afraid of being beaten up at some point in the last year.
>> 15 percent of DCPS middle schoolers were members of a gang or crew in the last year.
>> Around 40 percent of DCPS ninth graders repeat the grade, while one in three DCPS ninth graders fail algebra.

Some pretty dismal stuff, that — especially that attempted suicide figure, considering the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the rate of suicides among children ages 10 to 14 (the age range of most D.C. eighth graders) is merely 0.9 per 100,000.