One of my 7th graders committed suicide today after school. I found out a few hours ago. I am at a loss for how to process it.
One of my 7th graders committed suicide today after school. I found out a few hours ago. I am at a loss for how to process it. I’m early in my career and have not experienced this before. If anyone here has been in this situation before and has any helpful advice for processing this kind of loss, please let me know. Everyone is completely shocked, no one saw it coming. No information was shared about how it happened. This student has had a lot of behavioral issues all year, specifically being highly disruptive during direct instruction due to severe adhd, but appears to be a very happy kid. I found it hard to be frustrated at him for too long because even though he got on my nerves during class, he is a sweet kid and I could tell it wasn’t fully in his control. He only recently got diagnosed with adhd and was just starting to get treatment that was already making a difference and we were all super excited and hopeful for him to make big improvements soon. He has been reaching out to a lot of his teachers about making up missing work and his behavior and productivity in class had been improving. His mom has been incredibly supportive all year, exactly the kind of responses you hope for when you inform a parent that their child is struggling behaviorally. Just today in school he was his normal self and nothing seemed at all off. Shortly after school I got an email saying he was suspended tomorrow for behavior reasons, then several hours later I receive the notification that he passed away by suicide. It just feels so impossible. He was just a kid. He had so much to look forward to, things were actively improving for him. I’m feeing guilty that some of my concerns are also related to my own personal teacher situation. Some of my classes have assessments scheduled for Friday, I don’t know if I should reschedule them, spring break is next week so it’s not easy to reschedule them, I don’t know if the kids would benefit more from keeping the plan or adjusting to account for this situation. submitted by /u/-cmp [link] [comments]