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Step 1
After receiving my Master of Education in Guidance and Counseling, I hope to be employed as a counselor with the elementary school where I am currently working as an RTI Bilingual Interventionist. Serving the students on this campus as a counselor would be beneficial, since I have already built a positive relationship with many of the students.

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Step 2
Exploration Option 2 Slide 1
www.schoolcounselor.org
As a future counselor, I am more aware of the reasons to
intervene when a student has suicidal ideation. After a counselor completes a suicidal assessment, and it appears that the student is fine, does not determine the student is okay to leave alone or send home to be alone. It is imperative that a school counselor contacts the student's parent. A counselor is not a licensed mental health provider that can determine if a student is okay after he/she has expressed thoughts about suicide then says everything is fine. It is always better to intervene than to assume.

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Step 2
Exploration Option 2 Slide 2
www.nea.org
Mental health issues are growing every day in our schools. Counselors, teachers, and administrators are having to "fix the problem" of students' actions and not enough support in the schools to find out why the students are behaving this way. The article stresses the need of more school psychologists and social workers in the schools to help students suffering from mental illness. A school counselor can not "fix" a student with mental illness.

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Step 2
Exploration Option 3 Slide 1
"The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled a 41-year-old precedent and held that the teachers’ unions and other public-employee labor organizations may not collect fees for collective bargaining from workers who decline to join the union."( Retrieved from www.edweek.org)

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Step 2
Exploration Option 3 Slide 2
"The most significant test yet occurred in 2016. In Fisher v. University of Texas II, the Supreme Court heard a case it had handed back to a lower court in 2013. In it, a white woman named Abigail Fisher challenged her rejection from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), which used race-conscious policies for students like her — who didn't qualify for its Top 10 Percent Plan (TTPP) — to fill the remaining quarter of seats in its freshman class. She claimed those policies, which considered grades and personal achievement as well as other factors such as race, violated her equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment." (Retrieved from www.educationdive.com)

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Suicide and Mental Illness
The topic of suicide and mental illness is important to all educators and administrators in the schools. Since students are at school more than they are at home, schools should have a school-based suicide prevention program in place. It is our ethical duty as educators to keep our students safe by learning to identify when a student is at risk of suicide. If a student mentions that he/she is depressed and wants to end it all, or if his/her peers report suicide ideation of a student, take it seriously and do not assume the student is or will be fine.
School counselors and school personnel can and have been sued for not reporting suicide of students. In the article I read on the website, the school counselor nor the school personnel reported the suicide attempts of a student to his parents. The student was sent home to be alone and was later found dead by his parents. He had shot himself. The school personnel also knew there were firearms in the home. They ignored the warning signs and assumed  he was going to be okay.
As a future school counselor, I want to work on implementing a school-based suicide prevention program at the school. If there is already one in place, I want to ensure it is updated. I would also like for school personnel to be trained to identify signs of a student in distress and who has suicide ideation.
The school personnel should receive proper training to avoid legal and ethical issues, but most importantly, to save lives in our schools.

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Why I Chose The Topic of Mental Health Issues and Suicide in Schools

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Why I Chose The Topic of Mental Health Issues and Suicide in Schools

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Step 3
This topic is one that needs to be addressed more in our schools today to recognize when a student is in distress. I believe students think that death is a temporary fix and do not realize it is a permanent decision. I feel strongly about having more interventions in our schools to help these students.

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Step 4 Slide 1
Miller, D. N. (2014). Assessing treatment integrity in behavioral consultation. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 9(3), 15-18. Retrieved October/November, 2018.

Levels of responsibility in school-based suicide prevention:  Legal requirements, ethical duties, and best practices

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Step 4 Slide 2
Belyeu, N. (2014, July/August). Home | American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Retrieved October 28, 2018, from http://www.schoolcounselor.org

Take Action, Save Lives