This is not a pleasant post.

One of my key memories of my first year of teaching was escorting a small group of Year 9 students to their friend’s sister’s funeral. She had died in a car accident. I recall my distress at observing the impact upon my students. Since then, attending student funerals has become a regular part of my job and I have spoken at several of them. Tom died from emphysema in Year 9, Alex was hit by a car late at night in Year 10, David died in a car mishap, Christopher fell off a headland, Joe passed away from an infection caused by leukemia, Nick died on a family bushwalk, and there were others I didn’t know so well as I had not connected with them in a large school. I wonder if there has ever been any research into the emotional impact of student deaths upon teaching staff?

Now a mother has written a harrowing story of the apparent suicide of her son Christopher. It is an insightful and powerful gaze inside a family devastated by depression. I taught Christopher’s brothers Ben and Nick. Missing Christopher is the story of Chris’s shocking death and its impact upon the family. It is a visceral read, with a very important aftermath written by Professor Gordon Parker. I was given the book last Friday and read it that afternoon while waiting for a delayed flight, with tears streaming down my face. The book deserves to be widely read – by parents, people suffering depression/mental illness, and by teachers.