b'Schools may proactively suggest a meeting with the students close friends to talk about the type and timing of any memorialization. This can provide an important opportunity for the students to be heard and for the school to sensitively explain its rationale for permitting certain kinds of activities and not others. Schools may even wish to establish a standing committee composed of students, school administrators, and family members that can be convened on an as-needed basis.Schools may also suggest specific types of safe memorialization for students, such as the following:Hold a day of community service or create a school-based community service program in honor of thedeceased.Put together a team to participate in an awareness or fundraising event sponsored by one of the nationalmental health or suicide prevention organizations (e.g., an AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk) or hold a fund-raising event to support a local crisis hotline or other suicide prevention program.Sponsor a mental health awareness day.Purchase books on mental health for the school or local library.Work with the administration to develop and implement a curriculum focused on enhancing social andemotional development and help-seeking behaviors.Volunteer at a community crisis hotline.Raise funds to help the family defray their funeral expenses.Make a book or notecards available in the school office for several weeks, in which students can writemessages to the family, share memories of the deceased, or offer condolences. The book or notecards canthen be presented to the family on behalf of the school community.Tool for Making Decisions about MemorialsThe following tool is in Appendix A: Tools and Templates:Making Decisions about School-Related MemorialsFor more resources on memorialization, see Appendix B: Additional Resources. After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools|31'