When should we start talking about things like suicide prevention in schools? I don't think I even knew that was physically an option until junior high! Why someone would want to take their own life completely had my mind blown back then. My parents told me if I ever committed suicide that I would go straight to Hell. Being religious back then, that was the scariest thing to me! It still blows my mind today that someone would want to commit suicide, but now I know about stress, pressure, depression, etc. and can see the frame of mind someone might be in to take their own life.
I have been working with elementary age students (about 80% of the time) for most of my internship and practicum hours. I do not believe ever hearing about suicide prevention being taught. Honestly, I feel like teaching students this young that sometimes people kill themselves might be a bit too early considering their brains are most likely too immature to handle the concept. Knowing this may also be a chance for them to reek havoc on their parents by threatening suicide and learn that by saying it, will in turn get them immediate attention. Another concern I have is that children don't really understand finality.
"If I kill myself, I am dead." The end.
I feel a lot of children might think more like this, "If I kill myself I will watch my parents be sad and miss me and then once they learn their lesson I will come back."
The whole reason that I bring this up is that last year at the school I am doing my internship at, a third grade female student hung herself. When I heard about it I immediately assumed it was some kind of accident. It may have been, but after asking around about what happened teachers told me that the student was having issues making friends, she was very impulsive (ADHD diagnosis as well), and she had recently watched a program with her family on television where someone committed suicide by hanging.
Third Grader.
Last week, I had to call in a crisis team and do a suicide risk assessment on a third grade boy. This boy has a history of neglect and his parents are not in his life. The last thing he remembers about his dad is his dad saying he was not his son. He told his teacher he wanted to kill himself by going home and taking a bunch of pills. I do not feel that this child is going to go home and kill himself but the fact that he threatened it, had a plan, and that this has happened before at this school makes me very concerned.
Would suicide prevention at such a young age make things worse or better? I am very torn about it.
