Suicide awareness and prevention

I appreciated the article, and I agree we all have major responsibility to ensure our students have access to resources that can guide them…and we have the responsibility of teaching everyone to recognize the signs and intervene appropriately. But I also noticed that the article focused quite a bit on the young lady’s sexuality as being more of an issue than her grades. This is very difficult in the sense that some kids absolutely lack empathy and will push another through mocking and emotional abuse to the point of self-harm. But the article also had a great point in that sexualality was the big catalyst for suicidal ideation here. That is not something a child passes or fails. It is how they identify with their deepest inner feelings, and if their family or culture in which they belong does not accept them as they are, of course they are going to feel like they are failing or letting someone down. I feel it is important to understand how children relate, to encourage learning and push forward despite failure academically, and also recognize the warning signs. We have to be prepared to take action in such a way that a child feels accepted despite awful feelings, not guilty or shamed by their culture for being who they are. At the same time, it is important to recognize some students may suffer from depression or otherwise psychological challenges which require much more than emotional support alone.