Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series

Suicide Prevention
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for teens, after accidents and
KidsHealth.org/classroom
homicide. About 1 in 15 high school students attempt suicide each year, and
roughly 1 in 50 make an attempt serious enough to require medical attention.
Teacher’s Guide Peers and teachers are often the first ones to notice the warning signs – if they
know what to look for. These activities will help your students understand when
This guide includes: and how to get help for themselves or classmates.
• Standards
• Related Links Related KidsHealth Links
• Discussion Questions
Articles for Teens:
• Activities for Students
• Reproducible Materials Suicide
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/suicide.html

My Friend Is Talking About Suicide. What Should I Do?

TeensHealth.org/en/teens/talking-about-suicide.html
Standards I’m Thinking of Suicide. How Can I Stop?
This guide correlates with TeensHealth.org/en/teens/stop-suicide.html
the following National Health
When Depression Is Severe
Education Standards: TeensHealth.org/en/teens/severe-depression.html

Students will: Getting Help for Intense Grief

• Comprehend concepts related TeensHealth.org/en/teens/intense-grief.html
to health promotion and
disease prevention to enhance School Counselors
health. TeensHealth.org/en/teens/school-counselors.html
• Analyze the influence of
family, peers, culture, media,
Is It OK to Talk to a Teacher About Personal Problems?
technology, and other factors TeensHealth.org/en/teens/teacher-talk.html
on health behaviors.
Going to a Therapist
• Demonstrate the ability to TeensHealth.org/en/teens/therapist.html
access valid information and
products and services to Finding Low-Cost Mental Health Care
enhance health.
TeensHealth.org/en/teens/mhealth-care.html
• Demonstrate the ability to use
interpersonal communication
skills to enhance health and
avoid or reduce health risks.
Discussion Questions
• Demonstrate the ability to
use decision-making skills to Note: The following questions are written in language appropriate for sharing with
enhance health. your students.
• Demonstrate the ability to use
goal-setting skills to enhance 1. The teen suicide rate peaks around mid-adolescence. What is it about these
health. years that might make a teen more susceptible to suicide? What factors put
• Demonstrate the ability to some teens more at risk than others?
practice health-enhancing
behaviors and avoid or reduce
2. Teens who are thinking of committing suicide often show warning signs. What
health risks.
might they do or say?
• Demonstrate the ability to
advocate for personal, family,
and community health.
3. If you spot the warning signs of suicide in a friend, should you wait it out or say
something? What are helpful things to say? What are not helpful things to say?

National Health Education 4. Suicide is a difficult topic to talk about. How can we overcome the stigma so
Standards: www.cdc.gov/ that people can get the help they need?
healthyschools/sher/
standards/index.htm
© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series
Suicide Prevention
Activities for Students
Note: The following activities are written in language appropriate for sharing with your students.

Safe Haven

Objective:
Students will:
• Research and demonstrate their knowledge of the risk factors and warning signs of suicide

Materials:
• “Safe Haven” handout
• Art supplies and/or computer and PSA templates (available free online) and/or video equipment

Class Time:
• 1 hour

Activity:
[Note to instructor: Students can work on this individually or in small groups.] To help classmates who might be
feeling overwhelmed, depressed, or hopeless, we’re going to lay some of the groundwork needed to create a peer
counseling group that would provide a safe and supportive place for teens to get help.

First, think of a name for your group. Then do some research to gather information about suicide that will help you
create educational materials – for a brochure, poster, factsheet, video, or infographic, etc. – that could be used to
get the message out about your new support group. Topics should include:
• Statistics on teen suicide
• Who is at risk
• List of warning signs
• What to do if you suspect someone is considering suicide
• Where to get help

[Your students can review “5 Ways to Make Online Research Easier,”

TeensHealth.org/en/teens/online-research.html, before starting their research.]

Extensions:
1. If your school doesn’t have a peer counseling group, encourage students to work with a school counselor or
school psychologist to create one, as well as videos, infographics, brochures, posters, or factsheets for the
group to use in its outreach efforts. If your school already has a group, encourage your students to join or create
educational materials for the group to use.

2. Host a guest speaker with experience in suicide prevention, such as psychologist, social worker, or suicide
hotline staffer. School counselors, school psychologists, or school nurses may be able to help find a speaker or
even give a presentation to your class, grade, or school themselves.

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Grades 9 to 12 • Health Problems Series
Suicide Prevention
Red Flags

Objectives:
Students will:
• Read brief scenarios of teens considering suicide
• Demonstrate their understanding of risk factors and warning signs of suicide by spotting them in the scenarios

Materials:
• Pen or pencil
• “Red Flags” handout

Class Time:
• 45 minutes

Activity:
Teens who attempt suicide often give some type of warning ahead of time. Sometimes it’s what they say, such as “I
have nothing to live for” or “Everyone would be better off without me.” Other times, the signs are more subtle, like
feeling really sad for weeks or months, withdrawing from friends and activities, engaging in risky or self-destructive
behaviors, or changing eating and sleeping habits. All of these warning signs can be signs of depression, which is a
risk factor for suicide. Suicide isn’t always preventable, but we still need to know what a cry for help sounds like.
Even it’s a whisper.

Today, we’re going to practice looking for red flags in various scenarios. For each character on the “Red Flags”
handout, write down any words or actions that you believe show the person is at risk for suicide. Also write what you
could do to help in each situation. Afterward, we’ll share our responses.

Reproducible Materials
Handout: Safe Haven
KidsHealth.org/classroom/9to12/problems/emotions/suicide_prevention_handout1.pdf

Handout: Red Flags

KidsHealth.org/classroom/9to12/problems/emotions/suicide_prevention_handout2.pdf

Quiz: Suicide Prevention

KidsHealth.org/classroom/9to12/problems/emotions/suicide_prevention_quiz.pdf

Answer Key: Suicide Prevention

KidsHealth.org/classroom/9to12/problems/emotions/suicide_prevention_quiz_answers.pdf

KidsHealth.org is devoted to providing the latest children’s health information. The site, which is widely
recommended by educators, libraries, and school associations, has received the “Teachers’ Choice Award
for the Family” and the prestigious Pirelli Award for “Best Educational Media for Students.” KidsHealth comes
from the nonprofit Nemours Foundation. Check out www.KidsHealth.org to see the latest additions!

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide
Name: Date:

Safe Haven
Instructions: Gather information about suicide that could be used to create a teen-friendly educational brochure, poster, factsheet,
video, or infographic, etc.

Statistics:

Who’s at risk:

Warning signs:

What to do if you suspect someone is considering suicide:

Where to get help:

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide
Name: Date:

Red Flags
Instructions: For each scenario below, write down any words or actions that you believe show the character might be at risk for
suicide. (Red flags = warning signs.) Also write what you could do to help in each situation.

1. Leila hasn’t been the same since her mom died. It’s been especially tough because she doesn’t get along with her dad. For
months, she’s been saying that if it weren’t for her boyfriend, Dillon, she wouldn’t have anyone who cares about her. But Dillon
just broke up with her and Leila is devastated. She talks about needing to end her pain and just last night told you where the
key to her diary was in case anyone wants to read it “afterward.”

Red flags:

How I could help:

2. Oliver comes from a family of perfectionists. In Oliver’s family, the expectation is that he’ll go to an Ivy League college, just like
his parents and his sister did. But he just took his SATs for the third time and his scores aren’t high enough. He thinks his grades
might drop this semester, too. He’s so worried about not getting into a top college and letting his family down that he hasn’t
been able to sleep or eat. His parents also grounded him for getting the family car in a fender-bender. Without access to a car he
lost his part-time job delivering pizzas. He keeps saying how he’s tired of feeling like a disappointment and he sees no way out.

Red flags:

How I could help:

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide
Name: Date:

Red Flags
3. B
 en is the most talented actor at school, but he didn’t show for rehearsals this week and hasn’t told anyone why. You thought he
might have the flu or something like that, until you see him under the bleachers after school. He’s totally drunk. When you ask
him what’s going on, he confides that he recently came out to his parents and it didn’t go well. They told him to get out of the
house. He’s staying with his aunt for now, and he just found out she keeps a gun in her nightstand. He says he bets his parents
wouldn’t even miss him if he were gone.

Red flags:

How I could help:

4. W
 hen Jolie’s cousin Mara, who was more like a sister to her, committed suicide, Jolie was the one to find her. Jolie says that
since then, no matter how hard she tries to move on, she feels like she’s just going through the motions. Her grades dropped
and never went back up. She also quit field hockey and track and hasn’t played sports since. Soon it will be 1-year anniversary
of Mara’s death, and Jolie’s friends have been trying to keep her mind off of it. They invite her places, but she never goes. They
text her, but she turns off her phone. Last night she tweeted, “Mara had it right. #abetterplace.”

Red flags:

How I could help:

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide
Name: Date:

Red Flags
5. Charles hates school because he gets bullied a lot. He has ADHD and has repeated a grade. Charles used to spend a lot of time
playing video games with his older brother, Robert. But Robert joined the Army, and now Charles spends most of his time alone.
Sometimes he skips school and it seems like when he’s not sleeping, he’s eating. He tells you that he’d like to talk more with his
mom, but she’s exhausted when she gets home from her second job. He says he’d probably be doing her a favor if she didn’t have
to worry about him anymore.

Red flags:

How I could help:

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide
Name: Date:

Quiz
Instructions: Answer each question.

1. List four factors that can increase a teen’s risk of suicide:

2. True or false: If a person talks about suicide, it means he or she is just looking for attention and won’t go through with it.

3. True or false: The danger of suicide has passed when a person begins to cheer up.

4. List four warning signs that someone is thinking about suicide:

5. True or false: Once a person is suicidal, he or she is suicidal forever.

6. True or false: Most teens who attempt suicide really intend to die.

7. True or false: If a friend tells you she’s considering suicide and swears you to secrecy, you have to keep your promise.

8. True or false: The risk of suicide increases dramatically when teens have access to guns at home.

9. If you or a friend is feeling suicidal, as soon as possible, it’s best to call a suicide crisis line (800-SUICIDE), 911, or talk to:
a) a parent or relative
b) a school counselor, teacher, or coach
c) a therapist
d) a religious leader
e) anyone above

10. If your friend is suicidal, it’s least helpful to say:

a) Don’t worry, this will blow over by tomorrow
b) I’m concerned about you
c) I know where we can get help
d) I’m going to stay with you

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.
 Personal Health Series
Suicide

Quiz Answer Key

1. List four factors that can increase a teen’s risk of suicide:

Any four of the following: a psychological disorder, especially depression, bipolar disorder, and alcohol and/or drug
use; feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness; previous suicide attempt; family history of depression or suicide;
emotional, physical, or sexual abuse; lack of a support network, poor relationships with parents or peers, and feelings
of social isolation; dealing with bisexuality or homosexuality in an unsupportive family or community or hostile school
environment; perfectionism.

2. True or false: If a person talks about suicide, it means he or she is just looking for attention and won’t go through with it.

3. True or false: The danger of suicide has passed when a person begins to cheer up.

4. List four warning signs that someone is thinking about suicide:

Any four of the following: talking about suicide or death in general; hinting he/she might not be around anymore; talking
about feeling hopeless or feeling guilty; pulling away from friends or family; writing songs, poems, or letters about death,
separation, or loss; giving away treasured possessions; losing the desire to do favorite things or activities; having trouble
concentrating or thinking clearly; changing eating or sleeping habits; engaging in risky or self-destructive behaviors; losing
interest in school and/or extra-curricular activities.

5. True or false: Once a person is suicidal, he or she is suicidal forever.

6. True or false: Most teens who attempt suicide really intend to die.

7. True or false: If a friend tells you she’s considering suicide and swears you to secrecy, you have to keep your promise.

8. True or false: The risk of suicide increases dramatically when teens have access to guns at home.

9. If you or a friend is feeling suicidal, as soon as possible, it’s best to call a suicide crisis line (800-SUICIDE), 911, or talk to:
a) a parent or relative
b) a school counselor, teacher, or coach
c) a therapist
d) a religious leader
e) anyone above

10. If your friend is suicidal, it’s least helpful to say:

a) Don’t worry, this will blow over by tomorrow
b) I’m concerned about you
c) I know where we can get help
d) I’m going to stay with you

© 2017 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. Reproduction permitted for individual classroom use.