An act of treason that garners no response. A single missile in a lone war cry. As such are the actions of my peers.  Friends that mean the world to you, telling you to kill yourself. Now at first you take it as it was intended. A mere joke. However the moment your alone, the darkness creeps in. You feel it. You know it. It is no longer a joke. It is an act of betrayal in the closest regard. It may have started as a joke, and how very “funny” it was. However now it has evolved. Evolved into the dark monster that lurks behind every door, you can’t escape it, for it is always present. Time after time I watch seemingly fine individuals deteriorate under the flamboyant mask they present. They’re dying. They will never tell. For fear is a powerful motivator. They witness every day the kids with “issues” be singled out and treated as if they were glass. They do not want this. They wish to be normal. To be accepted. They do not wish to be treated by individuals that claim they know what you’re going through, but in all actuality do know anything. We have people who claim to be experts on mental health that truly know no more than the average human being. How can we expected to receive productive results from  an uninformed individual. Would you ask your hairstylist to perform brain surgery? Of course not! Then explain to me why we have education majors in a position to be dealing with hundreds of at risk children. How can we expect education majors to be able to “fix” a child, when they have no perception of what we are going through. You wonder why the suicide risk is exponentially higher among middle and highschool students. It is because the only “help” we can offer them is no more informed than the average teacher. You say you care deeply about each and every one of our children. And yet we have this atrocity of a guidance department that is not only failing at their job. But that was never even trained to accomplish the needs of the position they hold. This atrocity must be corrected. Before we lose these students, their potential, their life, their love. Before we lose them forever.