There is a boy in my now 2nd grade class. Recently his behavior has gotten worse. Every day he comes to school in a fowl mood. He refuses to do any work anddisrupts classmates. He walks around the classroom threatening students and picking fights. I talked to the science, gym, and computer teacher who all noticed a change. We suspect something is going on at home but with little help from the administration there seems like not much that can be done. Yesterday while he was having a meltdown he went and hid in the coat closet. I then had a student tell me that the boy was trying to kill himself. I ran to the closet to find him with his long sleeved shirt tied around his neck and hooked on to the coat hook (he is a little taller than where the hook is). He saw me and untied it and I talked with him about how scary that is and he walked away from me to his desk for the last 30 min of school. I went to the assistant principal and discussed the situation. She had me fill out a incident report and a detailed description of what happened. I have no idea if there has been any follow up but I do plan on asking again soon. Only 8 years old and already thinking about and knowing how to hurt himself. Would it make a difference in how this was handled if it happened in a suburban school?
Update: The mother of the boy came to the school awards assembly and I took her aside to talk to her about what had happened. While I am glad that there was an actual call to her from the school and that she wanted to talk to me, she was very calm and almost nonchalant about the issue.
