Mental health advocates are praising a new Mississippi law that requires public school teachers and principals to be trained in suicide prevention, starting in the coming academic year.

Attorney General Jim Hood says a nonprofit group will donate materials to explain the warning signs.

Teresa Mosley of Clinton says she hopes the training will help some families avoid the kind of heartbreak her family experienced. Mosley’s older daughter, 15-year-old Elisabeth, killed herself at home in June 2006.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide was the third-leading killer of Americans ages 10 to 24. The statistic for 2004 is the most recent available.

The bill is Senate Bill 2770.