By: Dr. Susan London
Without enough hours in the day, in conjunction with an already long high school class schedule, it can be challenging to figure out ways to bring in supplemental education and curriculum to our students. However, in an effort to bring more attention to mental health and social emotional learning in our high school, we have figured out a way to bring important and relevant topics to our students’ attention without disrupting the flow of the day. Working together with the English department, once a month, I will present a ten minute presentation during English class on a variety of teen mental and social emotional health issues.
We piloted the program last week by speaking to our students about suicide prevention. Senior Abigail Gottlieb and I spoke to our classes about depression and suicide prevention. Our students learned why they should care about teen suicide (suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 10 -24), as well as risk factors, protective factors, warning signs, and what to do if you are worried for yourself or others. Stay tuned each month to find out what we discussed with your children as part of this series; we certainly hope you will continue the conversations we begin in school at home with your children.
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