Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Suicide rate among the teenagers is increasing all over the world. According to the Child Trends, in the United States, the suicide rate among high school students has increased 25% since 2009. The reasons of increasing suicide rates include stress, depression, drug use, health issues, family issues, etc. The school environment sometimes also has an important role in increasing suicide rate. Poor academic performance, less communication with the teachers, lack of sharing of academic and personal issues with teachers, bullying by the classmates, failure to achieving academic and professional goals, more importantly, lack of professional counselor in the schools have large impact on inducing suicidal behaviors among the students. This trend is not only common among the high school teenagers, but also increasing among the college students. The suicidal behavior is also growing severely in the developing nations, where the schools have less resources for the mental health of the students. The teachers can play an important role in addressing the mental health issues of the students if they have adequate knowledge and training. The communication skill, the behavior pattern of the teachers are important to stimulate students’ success. The behavioral skills help a teacher to convey the content of the class to the students successfully and help to build a good teacher-student relationship which is important for students so that they utilize their time more efficiently and achieve their academic goals. On the other hand, if the teachers are not communicating with the students properly about their poor performance or victimize them for any reason in the school, it may cause stress and depression, and induce suicidal tendency. This paper investigates how the teachers’ behavior impacts in stimulating suicidal behavior among students. It also studies, how the policy implications can address this issue to take necessary measures to reduce the suicidal tendency among students. This study includes secondary information including statistical data on students’ suicide and attempt to suicide rate and other studies occurred in the same topic, and relevant cases from the newspapers. Recently, there are several news of committing suicide of students due to misbehavior or discriminating attitude of their teachers. These stories are analyzed within the framework of the Content Analysis method and the connection between the teachers’ behavior and students’ suicide tendency has been studied. The Social Cognitive Theory and the Social Ecological Model are also used to build a deeper understanding of the scenario. The Social Cognitive Theory helps to explain the students’ behavior as a result of teachers’ behavior and personal factors. The Social Ecological Model helps to develop some policy recommendations that may help to create an environment where the teachers will adopt cooperative and friendly communication skill and help the students to maximize their strength in learning.