> ... the 5-year old in question appears to be fine. Gahalyn talked to her supervisor, who brought the matter up with the boy's father, and they actively addressed the matter with apparently satisfactory results.

He gave me a scare by not showing up on Monday, but he was there on Tuesday. I've not had a chance to talk with him because this week I'm filling in for a worker who is with the younger children, but in the brief glance I've had of him nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I am still concerned, of course, for to even think of that so young means he is still going to have lots of problems and will need lots of help and prayer and support. As he was talking to me about his "plan", it was hard to imagine him actually being able to carry it out (although that did nothing to ease my fear). Yet even if he did not have the capacity to kill himself, the fact remains that this is not the first time he's mentioned suicide, and is the first time that he has been so specific about when and how. And besides anything else, at five years old a boy is supposed to be worried about bullies and scrapes and thunderstorms, not talking about ending his life.

Gahalyn