The first year I started teaching in Port Arthur, I wanted to bring To Write Love On Her Arms’ Between the Bells suicide prevention program for high school to my school. Our principal said no.
Last year, I started teaching in Beaumont and talked to my new principal about the program. He said yes.
Our student wellness coordinator / crisis social worker was thrilled because she had not been able to find resources like this, and TWLOHA’s program is grant-funded, making it free for Title 1 schools. We set up a suicide prevention booth in the cafeteria during lunch in January and brought it back for Suicide Prevention Week in September this school year.
In February, our admin team asked me to present Between the Bells to our school board. Since I’m a homeschooled kid who has never talked to a school board in my life, I was really nervous.
This is what I read:
Something I often explain to my students who are struggling is that it’s likely that I understand them better than they realize. I grew up in an abusive household and experienced a difficult childhood.
By the time I was 14, I was a troubled teen. For over a year, I had an idea of how I would die. Every day felt like a burden, but I had a distance-learning English teacher in 8th and 9th grade who was always cheerful. No matter what our lesson focused on, Mrs. Schmuck was always positive, warm, and caring to all of her students. Even though I only watched her classes on video, she felt like a light to me when I was in overwhelming darkness. So I survived that year.
During my freshman year of college, I found out about an organization called To Write Love On Her Arms. The founder tells a story about a friend of theirs who couldn’t be left alone and needed a group of friends to stay with her until she could go into in-patient treatment. Their description of how they loved her through a dark period resonated with me. I was still struggling with self-harm and suicidal ideation on a regular basis, and TWLOHA gave me hope that someone might understand me. For one of my English class assignments, I researched how to fund a student chapter of TWLOHA at my college with a grant since several people that I knew were struggling with feeling suicidal.
Now I’m a mostly stable, functional adult. I’ve been in therapy for over a decade to help with my depression, anxiety and complex PTSD. One counselor especially showed me unconditional acceptance and compassion when I told him about a time I had recently self-harmed. Because of that radical love and my own determination to heal, I have been self-harm free for seven years.
Throughout this process, I’ve participated in TWLOHA’s suicide prevention week in September every year, the Run for It 5k and other events that bring awareness to mental health issues.
During the last few years, I’ve also been on the journey to recovery from an eating disorder. TWLOHA is starting to include resources for eating disorders on their website as well.
When I found out about TWLOHA’s Between the Bells program for high school students, I was so excited to bring this program to our school. Between the Bells points students towards resources like the Crisis Text Line.
If you’ve ever needed to text the Crisis Text Line (like I have), the volunteers will tell you that they understand how you are feeling, validating where you are in that moment, and they point you towards coping skills to help on their website until you can talk to a mental health professional.
I felt that we were really able to connect with our students during our Lunch and Learn for Between the Bells. Even some staff members shared personal stories that I didn’t know about before. I’m very excited about continuing to use the materials with our students and having constructive conversations about mental health.
(All images were taken and shared with student consent.)
Eleanor Skelton 