-Shooting on campus

-Armed students

-Suicide

-Gang Fights

-Homicide

-Hostage situation

-What to do once the police arrive…

Verbal Suicide Threat:

Ideas, techniques, strategies for educators:

• Listen! Show that you care! Get Help!
• Trust your feelings that this student may be

  self-destructive.

• Notify the counselor and/or school psychologist.
• Notify the principal/assistant principal.
• The psychologist will notify the student’s parent, guardian or other

  emergency contact.

• Don’t discount, put down, or brush off the student’s feelings.
• Don’t feel you must be the one to find a solution to this student’s

  problems.

• Don’t try to handle the student’s problems alone.
• Don’t let the student convince you the crisis is over just because you’ve

  talked.

• Don’t view suicidal threats as spontaneous thoughts.

Immediate Suicide Threat:

When a student is threatening suicide on campus and has a lethal

weapon available.

• Stay with the student.
• Remain calm. Remember, the student is overwhelmed, confused, and

  ambivalent.

• Get vital information if possible(name, address, home phone). Send

  another teacher or student to get help from the school psychologist or

  school counselor and an administrator.

• Clear other students from the scene.
• Assure the student that he or she has done the right thing by talking to

  you. Try to win the student’s trust. Assure the student that emergency

  help is coming. Tell the student that there are options available.

• Get the student to talk. Listen! Repeat back what you hear. Help the

  student define the problem. Acknowledge the student’s feelings.

• Speak in a calm, low voice. “Talk with me, I’ll listen.” Show that you are

  not shocked to discuss suicide.

• Make a mental note of what the student says.
• Monitor the student’s behavior constantly.
• Try to get the student to agree to a verbal “no suicide” contract.
• Don’t minimize the student’s threat.
• Don’t lose patience.
• Don’t argue or challenge.
• Don’t promise confidentiality.

You can contact Rick Gale at his web site for teacher training
http://www.iusd.k12.ca.us/teachers/rgale/resume.htm