The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a nationwide mental health helpline available 24/7. (Photo by Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a free, confidential hotline available 24/7 for individuals in crisis or those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
TOPEKA — A Wichita organization created an online training program for suicide prevention and mental health education to improve the care that LGBTQ+ Kansans receive when reaching out to crisis resources, including the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The organization, Center of Daring, focuses on inclusivity and leadership training. Its 10-part training program takes nine hours to complete and is available for free on the center’s website, according to an April 28 press release announcing the program.
“We believe this training series will fill a deep need here at a time when many LGBTQ+ Kansans don’t feel safe in our state,” said Liz Hamor, the Center of Daring founder, in the release.
Through learning activities, videos and surveys, the training covers trauma-informed intervention, intersectionality and promoting equity within a crisis response organization. The training was designed with input from LGBTQ+ residents and Kansas crisis care providers, according to the press release.
The 988 helpline is a mental health crisis resource available 24/7. It went nationwide in 2022. Kansas’ line received more than 34,000 calls, 12,000 texts and 9,000 chats in 2025, according to a state-mandated annual report.
We should train search engines and AI with this logic so they stop giving the 10-year-old response with 40 replies over the current response with only 2 replies.
Depending on the size, features, and finish, Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak watches can range in price from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Audem …
Your occasional reminder that "AI" is shit: Every assertion in this "AI Overview" of the question "What coffee does John Scalzi drink" is wrong. I don't regularly drink coffee (and never black) I've never had black sesame jasmine cream tea, and I don't hang in coffee shops. Don't trust "AI" ever!
I still ask “AI” questions about me from time to time, just to see what it knows about a moderately notable science fiction author and whether it will still make up things when it doesn’t know something, and as of May 8, 2026, the answer to each is “not as much as it thinks it does,” and “it definitely will.”
As always, I remind myself: If it knows this little about something I know very well, think of how little it knows about things I know nothing about. It literally cannot be trusted with anything factual (because, one again, it doesn’t know facts, it just knows what is statistically likely to be the next word), and thinking that can be is an actual intellectual hazard and fault. Don’t be the one who does that.
In April, the U.S. Department of Education accused both Olathe Public Schools and the Shawnee Mission School District of violating federal Title IX and student privacy laws for their policies regarding transgender students and threatened to take away federal funding.
This week, Olathe signed a voluntary resolution aimed at resolving the investigation, but Shawnee Mission refused federal officials’ offer for a settlement.
Olathe submits to “voluntary resolution”
The “voluntary resolution agreement,” signed Friday by Olathe Superintendent Brent Yeager, is the first step to resolving the investigations launched last year by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and Student Privacy Policy.
In a statement, the district said it “firmly rejects the allegations” raised during the investigation calling it “a drawn-out political display,” but submitted the agreement in order to “remain focused on serving students and families,” avoid prolonged legal and financial disruption and protect federal funding.
The Olathe district will now update its policies regarding students’ gender identity, including guidance and training to state that participation in athletics “shall be based on the student’s sex.”
Olathe Superintendent Brent Yeager at an event in April 2026 at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe. Photo credit Margaret Mellott.
It also agreed to change its policy regarding restroom and locker room access to be “based on the student’s sex.”
The agreement Olathe signed explicitly defines sex as “a person’s biological classification at birth as either male or female as reflected on the student’s birth certificate.”
The district did, however, add a provision that its schools may continue to provide separate accommodations on a “case-by-case basis” determined at the building level by the principal in order to protect students’ “safety, privacy and disability rights.”
As part of the portion of the agreement regarding FERPA, or federal privacy statutes in education, Olathe agreed to issue a memo stating the district “has not had and does not have ‘gender support plans,’” but acknowledged that if such records existed and were maintained by the district, they would generally qualify as educational records subject to parental review under FERPA.
The district’s statement also stressed that the agreement isn’t an admission of a Title IX or FERPA violation.
Shawnee Mission refuses
In contrast, the Shawnee Mission district has so far refused to submit to federal investigators’ proffered resolution.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Education dated May 4, attorneys for the Shawnee Mission School District rejected the proposed agreement, saying it contains “inaccurate statements of law, false allegations of fact, and unreasonable conditions.”
The district argued the law surrounding transgender students and Title IX remains unsettled and pointed to a recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating “whether Title IX requires, permits, or prohibits the participation of transgender athletes in female athletics remains an open question of law.”
SMSD’s attorneys also noted the Supreme Court recently heard arguments in cases involving transgender athletes, but has not yet issued rulings, which could change the legal landscape regarding trans students’ rights.
The district also accused federal investigators of acting in “bad faith” when it accused the district of withholding records while refusing to name specific complaints.
“Rather than engage in good faith, the Department has made a blanket allegation of intentional noncompliance,” Shawnee Mission’s letter reads.
A student entering a gender neutral restroom stall at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. Photo credit Finn Bedell.
It called the investigation a “sham process designed to reach a predetermined outcome untethered to the facts or controlling standards of law.”
The letter also lays out SMSD’s objections to two provisions in the agreement.
The first is the requirement for the district to state “there are only two sexes (female and male)” and that sex is “unchangeable.”
Another provision would have required Superintendent Michael Schumacher to issue an apology letter to students for violating their privacy rights and “personal dignity.”
“The Department has put forth a draft resolution agreement that would force SMSD to issue a new policy and make public statements that intentionally devalue some members of our community,” the letter reads.
The federal investigations stemmed from allegations that four Kansas school districts kept unofficial student records and used “gender support plans.”
“These Kansas school districts have allowed ‘gender ideology’ to run amok in their schools,” said Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary for civil rights for the U.S. Department of Education, in a press release in April.
The department warned the districts that they would be at risk of losing federal funding if they didn’t change their policies. Both districts receive about a million dollars of federal funding a year.
Both Olathe Public Schools and the Shawnee Mission School District pushed back against the allegations in April saying the districts’ policies didn’t violate federal law.
Olathe Schools must provide documentation to federal officials by Oct. 1 showing updated guidance, training materials and websites to comply with the agreement.
The agreement also requires annual certification through 2028 affirming the district’s compliance.
Federal officials will close the investigation into Olathe when it determines the district has fulfilled the agreement.
“Olathe Public Schools looks forward to returning its full attention to the work that matters most – educating students and preparing them for their future,” the district said.
Because the district rejected the agreement, SMSD now faces a loss of federal funding and a possible legal fight with the Department of Education.
The looming Supreme Court decision could reshape the requirements of the agreements.
The Post reached out to The U.S. Department of Education but did not hear back at time of publication.
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