Hello Clever Bluejay Family!
Can you believe that it is already November? This year is absolutely flying by! We know that student, parent and family schedules are incredibly busy right now. The holiday season is right around the corner, as evidenced by Christmas trees and decorations throughout retail stores. We don't want to add more to your plates but we want to make sure that our Clever Counseling Department is providing the best available resources to our students, parents and Clever community.
First, we would like to thank our middle and high school students, staff and parents for all the support in implementing the Teen Safety Matters Curriculum in conjunction with the Child Advocacy Center. Our students were able to engage in activities and discussions surrounding digital citizenship, healthy relationship and safety strategies to care for themselves and their friends. We are excited to continue this process in the spring as we host our 3rd year of Child Safety Matters, the elementary version of the safety curriculum, to our Kindergarten thru 5th grade students.
Over the course of the last several years, we have hosted our annual Signs of Suicide Community Training event in a variety of settings. We know that this is a difficult topic to discuss and that can lead to low participation in these events. This year, we will be providing our parent and community training information in the link included below. This will allow you to look over the information provided, including clips from the Middle School and High School student trainings, at your convenience and from the comfort of your home. We will include contact information to reach out to our counseling department with any questions that you might have about the information provided, our implementation in the classroom or how we can partner to provide support if someone you know and love is struggling with thoughts of suicide. We hope that you take a few minutes to view this valuable information and continue these important conversations at home.
Our next step here at school is to begin implementing our annual Signs of Suicide curriculum in our 6th through 12th grade classrooms later this month. The Clever School District began utilizing SOS in 2018 and it continues to be a leading, evidence-based suicide prevention program throughout the US.
Through the program, students learn:
that depression is treatable, so they are encouraged to seek help
how to identify depression and potential suicide risk in themselves or a friend
to ACT (Acknowledge, Care and Tell a trusted adult) if concerned about themselves or a friend
who they can turn to at school for help
Students will watch age-appropriate video clips and participate in a guided discussion about depression, suicide, and what to do if they are concerned about a friend. At the end of class, students will complete an exit slip which asks whether they would like to talk to an adult about any concerns. School staff will conduct brief meetings with any student asking to talk.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to your student's counselor. If you are concerned about your child's participation in the SOS curriculum, please complete the SOS Parent Letter and Opt Out Form below and return it to your child's counselor before Tuesday, November 12th.
Thank you!
Clever Counseling Department
