Fall Creek Valley Middle School

For the advocation assignment, I thought back about my time at Arsenal Tech. While it was not the right school for me, they had so many things making it the right school for other people. When Dr. Medina, one of my professors, took us on the tour, we got to see so many of the resources the school had to offer. They had a med clinic the students could go to for help beyond saltine crackers. They had pamphlets and resources on where to go if you were housing insecure or in a bad relationship. They had things for the students and the parents. In terms of mental health, how can we take those things and make them available for the FCV middle schoolers? For the teachers? For the security guards? For admin? For the families? Indiana University and Community Health Network are two of the biggest medical providers in the community. How can we take those community resources and bring them to the middle school? I’m working to see if I can come up with a way for someone (or multiple people) to come and offer educational services for the staff. I know educators need to be trained in various types of aid such as first aid and suicide prevention, but what is mandated by the state is not going to be of the same quality as what is given by the people in hospitals. I want therapists to talk to the teachers and explain what it’s like for a child to work with them. I want social workers and DCS employees to come in and explain what happens when a child comes into their care. I think there is a lack of knowledge of what it's like to be suffering in terms of mental health as a child if you don’t have personal experience with it. That disconnect is dangerous, and it is really a barrier preventing kids from doing the best that they can in school. I am just working on how to pull it off.

I want to focus on this because gay kids are more likely to kill themselves.

I want to focus on this because the BIPOC community are more likely to kill themselves.  

I want to focus on this because disabled people are more likely to kill themselves.

I want to focus on this because disadvantaged people are more likely to kill themselves, and middle school is the beginning of when students find out that they are disadvantaged, and the beginning of when they are able to recognize that they are discriminated against. 

FCV Middle School has a very diverse population, and that population is at high risk. More needs to be done to protect it. This is mu current proposal. 

Vital Signs: Suicide Rates and Selected County-Level Factors — United States, 2022 | MMWR (cdc.gov)