Rethinking the roles of mentor and mentee in the context of student suicide

Student suicides and attempted suicides are on the rise globally, and the numbers continue to climb steeply in most Westernized countries. School personnel remain untrained and uninformed in the area of suicide; few teachers or administrators can accurately identify the characteristics of suicidal behavior and fewer still have any knowledge of appropriate ways to deal with deeply troubled students. This article uses a powerful and tragic story of a student’s suicide as a catalyst for rethinking the structure and goals of mentoring relationships. A new approach, pairing novice teachers whose pre‐service education curriculum included specific training in recognizing and addressing the emotional needs of students with mentors experienced in real‐world classroom dynamics and the effects of school culture on children could improve the school experience for many students and potentially reduce the number of suicides or attempted suicides.