When a Student Commits Suicide
Schools need to have emergency plans on how to inform school staff, especially teachers, and also fellow pupils and parents, when suicide has been attempted or committed at school, the aim being to prevent a cluster of suicides. A "contagion effect" can result from suicidal children's and adolescents' tendency to identify with destructive solutions adopted by people who have attempted or committed suicide.
Schoolmates, school staff and parents should be properly informed about a student's suicide or attempted suicide and the distress caused by such an act should be worked through.
However, discussions should be done in either small groups or a classroom format - not in an assembly. Extreme care should be taken not to glorify the victim or to sensationalize the death in any way. Information provided should be limited and factual, with no unnecessary details. Memorials should be downplayed or avoided altogether. Counseling should be available to assist the friends and classmates of the deceased to manage their grief, and special attention should be paid to other students previously known to be suicidal or depressed. It is important to remember that a suicide cluster may involve not just children or adolescents who know one another: even young people who are far removed from or entirely unknown to suicide victims may identify with their behavior and resort to suicide as a result.