There was recently some events that happened during the past year at my high school that were tragic and many alumni and current students are not proud of them. By that time, I was in my second month of college and was not keeping up with the events going on, but the power of the internet and excessive shares on social media brought me up to date with two specific events. One of them was a student death by a drunk driver and the other was a student suicide. Drunk Driving and Suicide are very sensitive subjects as is and they are very hard to talk about, especially with teenagers, but the issue is not with the teenagers, it is with the school's administration.

What I heard from students that still attend the school was that there wasn't any big discussion about them. The school gave their condolences to both families and that was the end of it. There was no further discussion of the effects of alcohol, the signs that someone needs help, or even reaching out saying something along the lines of "if anyone needs help, there are people here to talk".

I recently watched the Netflix series13 Reasons Why based on the book by Jay Asher, and I realized that it is not just my school, it's an issue nationwide. In the series, a high school junior named Hannah Baker, came into Liberty High School as a sophomore with high hopes for herself. She quickly made friends with Jessica and Alex, but with some rumors made about Hannah, they quickly drifted apart. These rumors, along with more rumors, things that she saw and things that she experienced, led her to her breaking point that led to a traumatic suicide.

After Hannah's death, the school verbally ignored it and instead, put up posters throughout the halls to "spread awareness" for suicide. Even though there were many students that were traumatized and saddened, though not many knew her, there wasn't any guidance from teachers or administration to lead students to talk about what they're feeling and none of the teachers brought it up to talk about in class.

Suicide is such a serious issue, and I thought it very immature of the faculty and administration to not speak to the students about it. Even though students have every right to be blamed for not speaking up, the faculty of the school is more at fault.

In my school and in most schools, the school community is constantly being promoted by the faculty. "Set a good example for your school", we were told before every last bell on Friday. "Think before you speak, before you act, before you post" was a popular phrase among the administration.

What aggravates me is that instances such as a student death happen and the administration does nothing for the school community and nothing to bring the students closer. Rather, the students become closer themselves because of the tragic event. We speak among ourselves, make signs/memorials for the person's locker or take an extra second to look at their everyday hangout spot. As I said earlier, the administration kind of just backs up even though the spotlight is put on them. They seem like they don't know how to react, which is very unprofessional and ironically, sets a bad example for the school.

The faculty should be setting an example for high schoolers, who still do not know how to cope with death, do not know how to grieve or don't know how to talk about their grief. They should be asking students how they feel, assuring them that it's okay to talk about their feelings instead of just brushing it off their shoulders. They should remind them that there is always someone there to talk to, someone there to listen because high schoolers, unfortunately, think that certain things come to them.

Hannah went through what most high schoolers go through. There were some exceptions to this, but had Hannah known that she had help waiting in an office, in a friend, or in her parents, she would have never done what she did, just like many other instances. Unfortunately, it's almost always too late and then the cycle begins again.