Authorities are responding to a suicide pact signed by dozens of Montreal high school students, although the students claim it was meant as a joke.

Private secondary school College d'Anjou informed parents in a letter earlier this week that a school employee had viewed a three-page letter signed by as many as 62 ninth- and tenth-graders who agreed to kill themselves on Jan. 30.

“We're taking this situation very seriously,” says the school’s letter to parents, which notes that at least one student called it a joke. “Your child may have signed that letter, so we're encouraging you to have a discussion with him or her."

Principal Luc Plante says that the school met with all of the students who signed the pact and while they said they were not serious about it, the school informed police and social workers. Three students have been suspended.

Jerome Goudreault from the Quebec Association of Suicide Prevention said the letter is no laughing matter. “It's probable that a few of the teenagers that signed that letter may have suicidal thoughts, may express distress,” he said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada reports that approximately 10 people die of suicide each day in Canada. It is the second leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 19 years. While females account for 59 per cent of suicides by those between the ages of 10 and 14, males account for 70 per cent of suicides among those ages 15 to 19, according to PHAC.

It is illegal under the Criminal Code to counsel a person to die by suicide or abet a person in dying by suicide.

PHAC encourages those who are thinking about suicide to contact the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention at 1-833-456-4566 or to call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.

With a report from CTV Montreal’s Stephane Giroux