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September 3, 2026
Open, responsible conversations and strong connections to trusted adults can have a big impact on youth suicide prevention. Educators can help by understanding how students communicate about emotional distress, asking direct questions when they are concerned and connecting students with trained mental health professionals.
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Editor’s note: This lesson discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts. Educators should consider students’ age, circumstances and readiness before beginning a classroom discussion and should familiarize themselves with their school or district’s mental health and crisis-response protocols. Anyone in the United States who is experiencing emotional distress or a suicidal crisis can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Support is free and available 24/7.
Suicide is a tricky subject to talk about. For years, some conversations about suicide prevention emphasized avoiding discussion out of concern about “suicide contagion”—the documented phenomenon in which certain kinds of exposure, particularly sensationalized or unsafe portrayals, can contribute to suicidal behavior.
But that concern sometimes became conflated with a different fear: that simply talking openly about suicide, or asking someone whether they are considering it, could put the idea in their head. Research does not support that fear. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) says asking directly about suicidal thoughts does not cause or increase them.
At the same time, the word itself became censored or suppressed in some corners of the internet. Young people adapted, using terms such as “unalive” when discussing suicide and death on social media. Researchers have described this phenomenon as “algospeak”—language that users develop in an attempt to avoid platform moderation or algorithmic penalties.
So where does that leave educators and other trusted adults when they hear young people discussing thoughts of death or self-harm?
Often, it is more complex than familiar tropes and portrayals of a teacher or staff member noticing a previously energetic young person becoming more withdrawn or a coach overhearing an athlete say everyone would be “better off” without them. Those signs can matter, but suicide rarely results from one circumstance, and young people's distress exists within a much larger social environment.
Young people today are coming of age amid concerns about climate change, economic insecurity, violence, discrimination, loneliness, social media and uncertainty about the future. Those pressures should not be treated as simple explanations for suicide; most young people who experience them will never attempt suicide, but research increasingly suggests that the conditions in which people live, learn and grow can shape mental health and suicide risk.
Each September, National Suicide Prevention Month and National Suicide Prevention Week focus attention on this difficult but critical public health challenge. For educators, that means becoming more comfortable with the language young people actually use, understanding the pressures they may be carrying, and knowing when and how to help connect a student with support.
The numbers remain concerning.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 20.4 percent of U.S. high school students seriously considered attempting suicide during the previous year, while 9.5 percent reported attempting suicide.
At the same time, the data requires some nuance. Several measures of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors improved between 2021 and 2023, even as large disparities remained among different groups of students.
There is also no single explanation for why a young person thinks about suicide.
The CDC describes suicide as the result of a combination of factors operating at the individual, relationship, community and societal levels. Risk can be affected by mental health conditions and substance use, but also by social isolation, discrimination, relationship problems, financial difficulties and barriers to healthcare.
That broader context is important because many of the issues young people talk about every day—whether online, in classrooms or among friends—overlap with those sources of stress.
Climate anxiety is one example.
A major international study published in the Lancet Planetary Health surveyed 10,000 people ages 16 to 25 across 10 countries. Nearly 60 percent said they were “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change, and many reported feelings including sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness and guilt.
This does not mean climate change directly causes suicide. But it does show that fears about the future can be a meaningful source of psychological distress for some young people.
Similar themes appear when young people talk about gun violence, war, discrimination, politics or other large-scale problems over which they may feel they have little control.
Economic conditions can also affect mental health.
Research has repeatedly found associations between financial hardship and suicide risk. A CDC analysis found lower suicide rates in counties with higher household incomes, greater health insurance coverage and better broadband access. The CDC consequently includes policies that strengthen household financial security and stabilize housing among its recommended suicide-prevention strategies.
A 2020 study published in JAMA Pediatrics similarly found higher suicide rates among children and adolescents living in counties with greater levels of poverty.
For young people, financial pressure may not always mean personally paying rent or worrying about a paycheck. It can mean seeing parents struggle financially, experiencing housing instability, worrying about college costs or entering adulthood believing that economic security will be difficult to achieve.
Again, none of those experiences alone explains suicide, but they help illustrate why prevention cannot be reduced to identifying one telltale behavior.
The Fight for Affordability community brings together resources, videos, and guidance to help people navigate these challenges.
Language presents another challenge.
Terms including “unalive” initially spread partly because social media users believed directly mentioning suicide, death or other sensitive topics could cause posts to be removed or suppressed.
What began as an attempt to navigate algorithms has increasingly moved into ordinary speech. Reuters reported in 2025 that online euphemisms including “unalive” have begun influencing how younger people communicate both on and off social media.
For adults, that creates an important lesson: Do not dismiss unfamiliar language simply because it sounds flippant or unserious.
A young person joking about being “unalived,” posting about not wanting to exist or using memes about death is not necessarily expressing suicidal intent. Context matters.
But adults should also not assume that humor, slang or internet language means a student is not struggling.
The right response is often curiosity rather than panic: What does the student mean? How are they doing? Is there reason to believe they may be unsafe?
One misconception can make those conversations harder: the belief that asking directly about suicide could give someone the idea.
According to the NIMH, research shows that asking someone whether they are suicidal does not increase suicidal thoughts or behavior. Direct questions can instead give someone permission to discuss feelings they may have been afraid to disclose.
That is different from suicide contagion.
Research on contagion generally concerns the way suicide is portrayed or communicated—particularly sensationalized coverage, romanticization, repeated exposure or detailed descriptions of methods. Responsible discussion that emphasizes prevention, treatment and help-seeking is not the same thing.
Educators therefore do not need to avoid the subject altogether, but they do need to approach it thoughtfully.
If a student expresses suicidal thoughts or an educator believes a student may be at immediate risk, the response should move beyond classroom conversation. Follow school or district crisis procedures and involve trained mental health professionals.
One of the clearest findings in youth suicide research concerns something schools can influence directly: connection.
In the CDC’s analysis of 2023 high school students, high levels of school connectedness were associated with lower prevalence of every mental health and suicide-risk measure the researchers examined.
School connectedness means students feel that adults and peers at school care about them as individuals and about their learning.
That does not mean teachers can—or should—be expected to act as therapists, nor does it mean a welcoming classroom can eliminate the many factors that contribute to suicide risk.
A student who knows which adult they can approach, believes they will be taken seriously and understands where mental health support is available is in a different position from a student who feels completely alone.
The NIMH recommends five broad actions when someone may be considering suicide:
Students should never be expected to manage another student’s suicidal crisis alone.
That can sometimes create a difficult situation: A friend may disclose thoughts of suicide but demand secrecy.
When someone's safety may be at risk, telling a trusted adult is not betraying that friend. It is helping connect them with people who are equipped to respond.
When someone's safety may be at risk, telling a trusted adult is not betraying that friend. It is helping connect them with people who are equipped to respond.
Ask students to create a hypothetical support map for a young person experiencing serious emotional distress.
Students might identify:
Then ask students to consider what might make reaching each resource easier or harder.
For example: Do the students know how to contact the school counselor? Would they worry about being judged? Do they know what will happen after they ask for help? Could cultural or language barriers affect whom they trust?
The goal is not to ask students to disclose their own mental health experiences. It is to examine how communities can make getting help easier before someone reaches a crisis point.
Suicide prevention requires us to listen to young people as they actually communicate—not only as adults expect them to.
That means knowing that a word like “unalive” can carry different meanings depending on context. It means understanding that distress may be connected to relationships or mental health, but also to worries about money, violence, discrimination, climate change or the future.
And it means resisting the temptation to identify one simple explanation for a profoundly complex public health problem.
Most importantly, adults should not be afraid to ask a difficult question.
We cannot eliminate every pressure young people face. But we can create schools and communities where they know someone will listen, where talking about mental health is not taboo and where asking for help reliably leads to support.
As we navigate the complexities of today's world, it is crucial to prioritize mental health in order to foster resilience, empathy, and emotional intelligence among our children. The resources included in this collection address various topics, such as stress management, self-esteem building, mental health coping mechanisms and professional learning webinars.
Join Dr. Vin Gupta—pulmonologist, public health expert, and professor—for a yearlong series offering expert-led webinars, blogs, resources, and Q&A sessions on pressing health issues to help AFT members and communities stay informed and healthy. Access all on-demand town halls and register for the next one.
