My sister is a sixth grade teacher at a small rural school and they just suffered a major tragedy a month or so ago.  A boy that had been in class with her students all along and had just moved and transfered to a different school in the district this past fall hung himself in his family's garage.  They still don't know exactally what happened and they are not allowed to discuss the details at the school.  Some kids in her class had been very close to the boy and it brought up a lot of emotions in the kids and adults.  They had counselers at the school for a few days to talk to everyone.  What an awful thing to have happen.  I'm not sure if I even understood the concept of suicide when I was that age.  Things are different today and kids are exposed to so much more.  They see so many things in this world that as adults we are so numb to now.  I just read a shocking book, The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle.  It's about a child who was sexually molested by his parents and is taken in by a friend of the family.  Although it was fiction, it was a  pretty frightning and thought provoking book.
