>>39679046I'll try to keep this as anonymous as possible for all of those involved and I hope that at least one person can learn something for this or at least prepare for it in case it happens to them.
So, I had already graduated by the time this had happened. I had been on a sporting team for 4 years throughout my high-school career (was more of a club than a sport so I was never a chad or popular just to understand where I'm coming from) and I'd just recently been asked to come on as a coach (ironically, given my performance on the team) to which I was honored and obliged, mostly because half of my teammates were still on the team and in school since it was made up of mostly different grades.
So, right before the winter season starts, a kid which most people from my grade knew and kids in the grade of most of the kids in the club I was in decided to take his own life. At first when I heard about this I thought it was a joke, it wasn't until I looked around more that I found it hadn't been a joke and he'd actually done it. He wasn't a bad kid, he was pretty average. He was in the drama club, same as my brother (although he wasn't as emotionally affected by it since he didn't know him all too well and it was his freshman year). Going through the administration to get cleared to be a coach, going to the meetings, everything had changed. Schedules were a mess. These people I used to see as a student, who were now technically my colleagues, all had lost the light in their eyes. Everyone knew this kid one way or another, basically. Hell, my firefighter buddy was the guy who responded to the call and cut him down from the rafters.
Everyone was devastated, and it hit our small school hard. As a coach I kinda had to pony up and be the bulwark and talk to everyone about how they felt about the situation. A lot of them went to the funeral. I hadn't, because I didn't think he'd want me there.
[spoiler:lit]I've been thinking of paying my respects sometime soon, actually.
