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Trigger warning for anyone concerned, this is going to mention suicide and depression as they're pretty solidly in the focus of the issue I'm having.
Why am I, a brand new math teacher, the one in charge of giving my students a lecture over suicide awareness?
I get that it's important that teens hear how to recognize signs of depression and for them to get resources on how to get help if they are contemplating doing something that severe. However why is it my job to talk to them about it? Not to mention I've not gotten anything in particular from admin about ~how~ they wish for me to do this other than a "here is the video for this year's suicide awareness trainings for students. Make sure they watch and then have a conversation with them afterwards about it". When I asked my team about it (the school has the math team do these talks every year since each student has at least one math course) they said "oh yeah we make sure they're paying attention and are super strict on people not paying attention because there was an incident a few years ago" and that's it. No "this is how we have this conversation with them" or "here are some topics we make sure to bring up about emotions when this happens". Am I totally unreasonable in thinking this isn't in my wheelhouse? Like I'm prepared to talk to students individually if they express they're having issues. I'm good to help connect them to resources including their counselor. But why am I the one tasked with giving a lecture about something that should be handled with someone with more direct knowledge and experience? I went to a school probably a quarter the size of this one (I graduated with 30 people in my HS class, this school has about 120 per grade level), and for us to get this type of information, we were called in for an assembly. Why isn't this the way anymore? Not to mention I personally don't have the greatest mental health in general. I've been doing better lately, but spending two whole days (block scheduling) talking about big feelings and suicide with teenagers while trying to keep class clowns from being turds does not seem to be a great move for my own mental stability. If literally anyone would have asked "hey do you think you could do this?" I would flat out tell them no! Death is not something I handle well, and having had several friends growing up that struggled with suicidal thoughts, I'm a bit worried that this will send me back to that dark time of my life. Any advice on what to do to keep myself solid mentally and to have these conversations with my students?
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