We Try: The Chaos within the Public School System and the Lives Being Lost

by Marie McNall

This book explores the emotional toll that is taking place in public education. It is a raw, emotional reflection from a teacher grappling with the sudden death of a student by suicide. The narrator is consumed by guilt, self-doubt, and grief, questioning whether they missed signs or could have done something to prevent it. Though the student had appeared happy—smiling, laughing, engaging, there was a hidden darkness that no one fully saw. The teacher is haunted by the fact that this student is the seventh to die in seven years, and laments how unprepared educators are for student loss. But it isn’t just the loss of the student that pushes this teacher to the brink; it is outside pressure, time after COVID, parents, school boards, technology, lack of substitutes, how to recruit new teachers, it is a never-ending list.
It is a searing, honest memoir from a teacher on the frontlines of a quiet student suicide and the emotional toll it takes on educators. Told in unflinching prose, the book begins with the narrator’s haunting recollection of a student’s death—her smile, the last conversation, the moment everything unraveled. What follows is a journey through grief, guilt, resilience, and the deep, unseen labor of teaching in a system unequipped to handle emotional trauma.
This book is for teachers, counselors, parents, and anyone who has ever sat with the impossible Could I have done more?

166 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2025