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We explored secondary school principals' knowledge of suicide prevention programs, their perceptions of the logistical and cultural barriers associated with suicide prevention program adoption, and their justification for adopting (or not adopting) suicide prevention programs in their schools. Principals, as positional leaders of schools, can lead the adoption and support of school-based suicide prevention programs for their students. Using a phenomenology framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews of eight secondary school principals working in public schools in the south-central United States. The principals readily identified the importance of supporting students' mental health to enhance their learning as a justification for implementing suicide prevention programs for their students. They shared how limited staffing, time, perception of school responsibility for student mental health, and lack of knowledge of available suicide prevention resources were logistical, cultural, and knowledge barriers to adopting suicide prevention programs for students. Our research has profound implications for practice.

College is a major critical juncture for students in which they learn to author their lives. For students who are pre-service teachers, college provides an opportunity for them to develop their leader identity, a skill critical to their professional success. We posited there is a relationship between leader identity and self-authorship, such that those students with a high level of self-authorship are likely to have a high level of leader identity. To test our hypothesis, we use a cross-sections design surveying a sample of preservice teachers to assess their leader identity and self-authorship. Our survey garnered quantitative and qualitative data. Our analysis revealed traits associated with levels of leader identity and self-authorship. We found a strong positive correlation between the two variables, indicating a potential relationship. We explored the findings in our discussion and implications, recognized our study limitations, and suggested directions for future research.