(Trigger warning: Suicide ideation) Student/Teen

[California]

(Trigger warning)
Last night I was driving my family home from a celebration dinner and spotted a teen sitting in his PJs on a path on a bridge over the freeway by our house. He stood up and leaned over the bridge railing, then sat back down. All I can say is my mom radar went off, and I dropped off my kids and turned around. When I got back a couple of minutes later, a friend of his had been driving by and stopped his car in the middle of the street, jumped out and was holding onto the teen. I walked up and them and introduced myself, "Hey, I'm Mrs. XYS, a teacher at XYZ, what's your name?" and he started sobbing. I put my arm around him and walked him down the bridge while he cried about how everything had just gotten to be too much for him, he knew he was loved and he knew he had a purpose, but everything had just gotten too hard and he'd had a really bad day. He lived a few blocks from the bridge. Meanwhile his friend had contacted his mom, and someone else who'd driven by had alerted the police. The police showed up and they were only sort of gentle with him, and I insisted on staying with the teen until his mom got there.

As a teacher, I'm seeing so many kids who are dealing with mental health crisises (including one of my own, and it took us months to find a therapist.) I don't think we blew it to close schools- January gave us a glimpse of what it would have been like if we'd stayed open, and that was awful- but I think our district in particular really blew it by not addressing that our kids have gone through significant trauma. The insistance on plowing through curriculum and testing the kids is just not right. I am still all shaken up from last night. I gave the teen's mom my number in case she needed someone to talk to. Obviously I need someone to talk to as well. The teen's situation just broke my heart a bit.

[bisous]

Oh my gosh. Thank goodness you went back. I'm so sorry. I have a teen who has been having a really hard time. There is a lot of suffering out there. Bless you for keeping your eyes open and for having what appears to be a solid skill set to help intervene in the life of this teen!

[echoesofspring]

How heartbreaking, I'm glad you were able to be there to help him, and I hope he finds the help he needs.

[Tenasparkl]

Thank goodness you were there and followed your instincts. It's hard to be a teen under the best of circumstances, but this particular group of kids has been through such a tough time. I hope you can find someone to talk to about all this. xo

[MSWR0319]

How awful for everyone involved. Thank you for doing what you did! Many people would not have. I hope you are able to process all of this and can find someone to talk this out with. This stuff just scares me. I try to keep my eyes open for signs of anything with my kids, they seem happy and in a good place, but one just never knows with all that goes on in their lives. It's so scary.

[georgiegirl]

How very scary and emotional. I’m glad you were there for him. I worry about my own kids and it’s sad that this kid felt loved but still felt so hopeless.

[khm]

(Trigger warning)
Last night I was driving my family home from a celebration dinner and spotted a teen sitting in his PJs on a path on a bridge over the freeway by our house. He stood up and leaned over the bridge railing, then sat back down. All I can say is my mom radar went off, and I dropped off my kids and turned around. When I got back a couple of minutes later, a friend of his had been driving by and stopped his car in the middle of the street, jumped out and was holding onto the teen. I walked up and them and introduced myself, "Hey, I'm Mrs. XYS, a teacher at XYZ, what's your name?" and he started sobbing. I put my arm around him and walked him down the bridge while he cried about how everything had just gotten to be too much for him, he knew he was loved and he knew he had a purpose, but everything had just gotten too hard and he'd had a really bad day. He lived a few blocks from the bridge. Meanwhile his friend had contacted his mom, and someone else who'd driven by had alerted the police. The police showed up and they were only sort of gentle with him, and I insisted on staying with the teen until his mom got there.

As a teacher, I'm seeing so many kids who are dealing with mental health crisises (including one of my own, and it took us months to find a therapist.) I don't think we blew it to close schools- January gave us a glimpse of what it would have been like if we'd stayed open, and that was awful- but I think our district in particular really blew it by not addressing that our kids have gone through significant trauma. The insistance on plowing through curriculum and testing the kids is just not right. I am still all shaken up from last night. I gave the teen's mom my number in case she needed someone to talk to. Obviously I need someone to talk to as well. The teen's situation just broke my heart a bit.

I am so sorry for that kid and so glad his friend and you happened along! I hope he gets the care and help he needs.

Suicide has hit close to home for me several times in the last year. A co-worker a few years out of college. It was devastating for his manager and his closest co-workers, who tried and tried to help him. It appeared he had turned a corner and was doing better..... The other three were 19-21. So very young. I am heartened that people are taking the possibility more seriously than in the past (unlike the officers you dealt with, I guess). A different coworker had concerns about her daughter after a rough year at college and then a serious concussion, our company did a lot to assist her in caring for her daughter until she got to a better place. I feel like in the past, it would have been, "she's fine, she hasn't made any REAL threats, get back to work".

I hope you and the friend and the parents all get the help you need as well! (hugs)

[essnce629]

Omg, how scary. I'm glad you were there to help and I hope he gets some much needed help as well.

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[AngB]

I am so glad it turned out okay and I don't blame you at all for being shook up about it. I completely agree with you and everything our kids have been through.

I don't know why our country hasn't gotten smarter as far as police and put mental health/counselors in every unit to go out on calls like this with them. I feel like so much of police work these days involves stuff like this or de-escalating tense situations that not all officers are equipped for and possibly could prevent many tragic situations. Then again, I guess there aren't enough mental health professionals to go around even just for regular therapy so the demand of adding them with every police force may be a little ambitious but still it seems like something we should be working towards instead of ignoring and acting like any Joe Schmoe police officer is equipped to serve as a mental health professional as well.

[JustMe]

Thank you for being there for that teen and their friend. The state of people's mental health in general is a crisis of huge proportions (sorry I only have a minute and am not finding the right word) that does not have one single cause. I hope that funds and resources will be put towards helping people access quality mental health resources.