Jon: That year was a very, very challenging year. To have that cluster of suicides
in a relatively short period of time had an impact on all areas of our community, where it really did shake those feelings of safety and predictability.

Jordan: The climate on campus, it was dismal, it was scary. Every time the overhead went off to announce things, you were just waiting for the next student’s name to be heard.

Lori: It was very hard as a teacher, I had a lot of eyes on my students, trying to make sure they were okay. I had a lot of one on one conversations with my students, saying, “How are you doing? I’m concerned about you.”

Taylor: Someone feeling so hopeless, so alone that they take their own life, that’s heartbreaking and that’s something that no one wants to acknowledge is a problem,
because it shouldn’t be a problem.

David: What we experienced as a community was really a reflection of society as a whole and that is this reticence to talk about suicide, that’s not something we talk about. Suicide is not an issue where we can blame one thing. So rather than pointing fingers, the focus was, how can we create a healthier community?

Norm: So really not just thinking about the outcome of what happens when a student’s in trauma, but what leads up to that? What are some preventive measures we can put in place that provide opportunities for students to seek out help?

Lori: And we’re here to help reduce the stress in our lives, to take care of ourselves and provide support for each other.

Jon: Virtually every school is running support groups for kids. Last year, we ran over two hundred and fifty groups that served just about two thousand kids, and we’ve run support groups on a variety of topics, like anxiety, depression, teen issues, divorce.

Student: Last week, my anxiety started coming back really bad, so I’ve just been learning
how to cope with that again.

David: We also developed some district wide trainings in terms of suicide prevention.

Julie: The training is really focused on identifying those invitations for help, seeing those warning signs in the people around you and then getting them to the support.

David: We want to ask this question very clearly, very directly, and without judgment, are
you thinking about suicide?

Norm: When we first started this conversation around suicide prevention, we had a lot of experts. We had teachers and administrators and counsellors around the table, and it took us one meeting to realize that if we want to have a conversation about how best to reach students, it’s not a bunch of adults standing around going, “I think this will work.” It’s students telling us what their needs are.

Student: It’s been kind of hard, because my dad has just been like, “You’re going to prom.”

Jordan: In peer counselling, it was students being there for students. We saw a really large array of issues people were dealing with, whether it be divorced parents, abusive households,
struggling in school, suicidal ideation.

Julie: Kids don’t tell their parents or their teachers, they tell a friend. So anything that we can do to get them to support each other is way more powerful than what we can do on the adult end.

Taylor: Although we may not have the exact same stressors, we all deal with something. Does anyone remember any of the coping strategies?

Student: Talking to other people about what you’re going through.

Taylor: We started the club, because people who are struggling, they just feel alone, and they
don’t think anyone else thinks or feels the way the feel, but that’s not the case.

David: Our job as an educational institution is to prepare kids for the world, life after high school. Part of that is being able to deal with those day to day challenges we all experience. So we’re educating kids in terms of how to regulate your feelings, how to manage stress, how to deal with the anxiety that often is a part of growing up.

Taylor: I think there just needs to be converstaions, because there isn’t a cure all solution to this problem. It’s really just making a conscious effort, day in and day out.

Lori: You can’t teach a kid who is struggling and dealing with depression and anxiety and possible thoughts of suicide. That student is not going to learn in your class unless they know
they’re cared for and they feel safe and so we’ve been working really hard since 2016 to let our kids know, we are trying our best to listen to them and respond to them.

Jordan: I can very confidently say the word suicide and have a conversation with people about it, without being scared of it and I think that’s huge and it’s something I’d like to spread to other people, just letting people know it’s not a hands off topic. It’s something that needs to be talked about.

Clovis Unified School District