My Final Paper- Please Read

This is my persuasive paper for fundies. It was a way for me to communicate to my teachers without alarming them. It also helped me in healing myself in ways that only I can explain. Pardon my gramatical errors, but I am still very proud of this paper. Please read this with respect and do not laugh, it's not a humor paper. Please read this, for me.

Teachers and Suicide Awareness
Suicide has been a problem in society for many years. The group in society that has been affected by it the most would be adolescents or teenagers. Many teenagers view suicide as a way out of their problems. But suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem. With all the stress in society today, it’s no wonder that it takes a beating on teens and drives them to suicidal states. Even with that in mind, most teachers are not aware of just how many students fall into this category. Although there is some awareness instilled in teachers, rising rates of suicide, teacher’s personal awareness, and effects of limited awareness still play a problem in overall awareness.
With the raising suicide rate in the past 10 years, the community within the school has become much more stressful. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth from ages 15-19. A self reported survey has shown that over 20% of students have seriously considered suicide within the past year and another 23% have attempted or made plans to attempt suicide. (Page, Adolescent Suicide) School plays a large part in the stress that builds up. The teenage years are generally a period of high risk for morbidity and mortality. (Page, Adolescent Suicide) Students tend to get entertained by thoughts of dark subjects or their own soul. They concoct these ideas in their heads and review them constantly. Dark as these subjects may be to others; the student is highly fascinated by them and continues to develop more ideas of the same nature. Along with school, home life is another large player in the game of suicide. Parents drive their students to be strong achievers. Students also receive self and peer pressure to perform well academically and socially. Most parents today hold a full- time job, which leaves less time for them to be around their children. Children slowly become isolated from their parents and must rely on themselves. (Gale, Interview)
Community concern about youth suicide has created community pressure for schools to develops and implement a variety of suicide prevention initiatives. (Page, Adolescent Suicide) Many secondary schools are hoping to increase the sensitivity of school personnel to recognize the signs of suicide-prone youth. (Page, Adolescent Suicide) Many teachers do not have a good sense of the warning signs and may disregard them as “normal” teenage problems. Schools seek to create programs where teachers may learn and recognize the signs of suicide before it’s too late. It is imperative for schools to have high-quality suicide prevention programs. The programs themselves are often implemented in the schools (rather than outside but school sponsored) and are usually directed towards students as well as teachers. (Davidson, Suicide Prevention)
As stated previously, many teachers do not have much of an idea of how many suicidal- prone students they deal with on a day to day basis. The teachers who are more in-tune and well connected with their students are more likely to notice the suicidal behaviors. They usually are able to do this because they (as a teenager) had deeply contemplated and/or attempted suicide themselves. They would know what the student is going through/dealing with and would be able to place themselves in their students’ shoes. (Mikels, Interview)
In areas of being connected with their students, teachers are on many different levels. Out of the four teachers interviewed for this paper, all four were at different levels or connections with their students. Mr. Cameron Gale has a fairly good sense of the emotional state of his students. He connects very well with most of his students that he teaches in his classes. But when confronted with a suspicion that a student is having a rough time outside of class, he isn’t willing to press the issues or pester his student, for fear of alienating that student farther than he or she already is. (Interview)
Mr. Robert Schebel feels extremely well-connected with his students. He says that it is extraordinarily important for teachers to reach out to their students and connect with them personally, not just strictly a student teacher relation. He realizes that teachers can’t make a strong connection with all of their students, but then can at least try. Although Mr. Schebel is relatively new to teaching, he still feels that he is very well connected with his students; some of those students are not even ones he has in classes. He commented on the chemistry of the teenage brain. They are naturally manic depressive, dealing with social environment, family issues, and school pressures. (Interview)
Another interviewee, Mr. David Cochran, is less certain of his personal connection with his students. He doesn’t feel well connected with students, and due to that he is not able to speak for the student body. Most of his students in his classes generally stay quite due to the nature of the class. He has some personal sense that he knows his students in class fairly well, but he might be completely in the dark on their real personality. It might just be that the student is having trouble in that particular class and tends to keep quite; while outside of that class the student is vibrant and outgoing. (Interview)
Like the first two teachers, Mrs. Janelle Mikels feels well-connected with her students. She can tell a lot about her students by their body language. They might be slumped over or are not attentive in class and generally stay to themselves or might confide only in one person. If a student does show suicidal tendencies, the teachers of that student will get together and discuss that student. If a student she has is suicidal, usually by the time knowledge reaches her, the attempt has already passed and she can simply do nothing but support the student. She strongly believes that teachers do play an important role in how students deal with their lives. Most students don’t actually realize this fact until much later. Mrs. Mikels is a teacher who believes in hidden curriculum. Of course a student attends a class to learn about literature, math, broadcasting, science, etc. But he or she might leave that class, having learned a lesson about responsibility. (Interview)
As wonderful as these four teachers are, there are still those out there who are very reluctant to notice suicide hints and may just disregard threats all together. A great number of teachers will disregard suicide “threats” as jokes or over-frustration. Also some teachers, somewhat like Mr. Gale, are reluctant to help out a student when faced with a threat. They might be scared for any number of reasons, but all teachers are mandatory reporters if suicide is brought to their attention. (Davidson, Suicide Prevention)
Even if teachers were to go through some kind of program and would be then able to recognize the warning signs, the initial contact between the student and teacher is very important. Teachers are the front line in the regards of dealing with students’ problems. They might hear things from the student’s friends or from the student directly. Teachers need to be prepared (no matter what area of school they teach) to deal with suicidal students. It would be very beneficial to the students; if teachers became less uncomfortable and more willing to deal with students. (Davidson, Suicide Prevention)
Hopefully, in the near future, it will become a requirement for teachers to be instilled with knowledge of warning signs and how to deal with them. If this were to happen, trained personnel would have to available within the school setting to respond to students who are experiencing troubled feelings. The timing of the interaction between students and teachers is also a major key in prevention. (Page, Adolescent Suicide)
Ultimately in the end, it is entirely up to the students to reach out to their teachers. They must take the first step in asking for help. Many students are unwilling to come to a teacher directly, for fear of getting in trouble with higher administration. Normally they will confide in a close friend(s), and the friend(s) would come to the teacher with concern for their friend. Students must realize that teachers are not mental health professionals and can’t be expected to function as such. Often teachers have no training in suicide intervention and cannot be held responsible for emergency care and/or long term therapy. (Davidson, Suicide Prevention)
There is cause for hope, however. Many teachers have (in their career) helped a suicidal student. They have been there for them in their time(s) of need. Often a student will feel a great sense of trust in the teacher and confront them after class or after school. It is their cry for help; they can no longer keep all of the emotions built up inside them. The teacher listens to them and tries to help them cope and sort out their problems that they are dealing with. (Gale, Schebel, Cochran, Mikels, Interview) The world would be a better place if all teachers opened their eyes, minds, and hearts to their students and in return hope that the students will do the same.

I recieved a score of 97 out of 100. I was highly impressed as were my teachers.
~Amanda Pichler