MS. BRADFORD: We need to get the word out to ask the “how” question. I could ask, “How are you doing
emotionally today, Jim,” but I’ve been a little scared to ask you. We need to ask people, the healthy people,
the people who maybe are sitting in the back of the classroom. Sometimes the kid that’s the brightest or the
quickest to raise their hand is the one that maybe has something they’re hiding. It’s different for every per-son
but we can be asking them, how are you feeling today, what’s going on in your head today?
DR. BROWN: How is your brain working?
MS. BRENNERMAN: Just checking in with people and that it’s okay. A lot of them don’t have anyone that
checks in for them, so that’s huge.
MS. BRADFORD: If I was speaking in front of 1,000 people and I said, “This happened to me, how many
people have thought about taking their own life or have been touched by suicide?” About 98 percent
would raise their hands. If we all just say, “Hey, I read this article on suicide … how is your head working,”
maybe we can get a conversation started.
MS. ROGGEMAN: It’s more than just asking the question. It’s really listening to verbal and nonverbal
answers.
DR. BENNETT: So you say, good? Define good? What’s good? What’s not so good? Probe a little bit.
MS. ELMENDORF: We have to think about who they were while they were here, because we so focus on the
negative things and the pain. There’s an article by Norman Vincent Peale that I love about a sermon he
had heard. It gives a whole different perspective to suicide. It talks about let’s give this person credit for all
of the silent battles that he fought and did win before he took his life. Let’s remember who he was and not
let this one final act define who he was, because we don’t know the silent skirmishes this person fought for
years to maintain who he was for as long as he did.
MS. SHIN: Hunter sent me an email on that Wednesday, he said, I’m sick, I won’t be in class today, I will
see you on Friday. And then Hunter took his life on Thursday. So I went back to the email and I said do I
see anything here? And I said no, I don’t see anything. I couldn’t have because he was happy and he said he
would see me on Friday. I mean, who does that? 51
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