Students, Suicide, and Suicide Prevention

you know if someone is depressed? What do you think you could do if they were seriously depressed or talked about suicide?" The students should be given quiet time to write a response in their journals or notebook. As a class, visit the website "Teen Suicide Theme Page" http://www.cln.org/themes/suicide.html which contains links to resources related to the issue of Teen Suicide. The research students perform should prepare them to answer the following questions, which you could provide as a worksheet beforehand:

1. What are the most common causes of suicide among teens?
2. What emotional problems do teens experience that might lead to suicide?
3. List 5 of the symptoms of depression.
4. List 5 of the danger signs of suicide.
5. Name 3 suicide facts.
6. Name 3 suicide myths/misconceptions.
7. List 5 things you can do to help a person who feels suicidal.
8. In one paragraph, summarize one suicide prevention program.

After the students have had time to locate and write down their answers, discuss the student findings and emotions as a class. Following this research and discussion, divide the students into small teams. Each team should imagine that they are worried about a friend who is showing signs of depression. As a team, they will write a skit that shows what response(s) they would take to help, using their research for support.

To finish this lesson, assign as homework or dedicate one extra session to the creation of a booklet. Each student should create a booklet for students their own age that informs them about what to do if someone they know is depressed or suicidal. The booklet should, preferrably, be completed on the computer in a program like Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word. In the Resources are several souces for booklet templates which you can use in these programs. Allow the students to use Google's (www.google.com) Image Search to find graphics that they can place in the booklet. If time allows, arrange for students to share their booklets and/or skits with other classes, or have them donate their booklets to school counseling centers within the school or community.

Related Activities: Allow students to respond in-depth in their journal or notebook concerning the thoughts and emotions this lesson brings up. Have they (or you) ever had to deal with the loss of someone close to

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