The Haines School is reaching out to students to let them know they aren’t alone.
The school is holding an assembly and student training on suicide prevention Tuesday as part of a statewide campaign called “You Are Not Alone.” The program teaches students how to recognize warning signs, offer support, and refer a person to qualified, adult help.
School counselor Lindsey Moore decided to bring the program to Haines after seeing coordinator Deborah Casello speak at a statewide school counselor meeting in November.
The school-wide assembly on Tuesday will be followed by a 90-minute student training session for interested high school and middle school students. “You take a first aid class because you want to know the skills should you need to use them, but you hope you never have to,” Moore said.
Program coordinator Casello said the class isn’t intended to turn students into interventionists or counselors. The training teaches students how to be “911 callers,” she said.
“They are the first to alert people that somebody needs help, but they aren’t the ones who are going to do the final intervening or counseling,” Casello said.
The ultimate goal of the program is to destigmatize talking about suicide or suicidal thoughts, she said. “We want this to become normalized, to say people need help and it is OK to get help.”
At the end of the assembly, students will be given bracelets inscribed with the words “You Are Not Alone” and the Alaska Careline Crisis Intervention phone number.