Recent news on the education front has ranged from positive to bizarre to embarrassing and troubling.

First, the positive. Pennsylvania has become more proactive regarding youth suicide after Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation requiring all schools to adopt age-appropriate youth suicide awareness and prevention policies for students in sixth through 12th grades.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths by suicide across the country have surpassed the number from vehicle crashes. In 2010, 33,687 deaths resulted from traffic accidents and 38,364 from suicides. In this state, Fayette County recorded an 80 percent increase in suicides, from 15 in 2012 to 27 in 2013 while in Allegheny, suicides rose 24 percent in four years, up to 160 in 2013.Barb Scheinberg of Monroeville, whose daughter, Melanie, 20, committed suicide while at college, feels action on the public school level is long overdue. She said children are told about the perils of drug and alcohol but in many cases, but not so much when it comes to warnings about depression and the fact that there is help available.In another school story that falls into the bizarre and troubling category, Kendra Turner, a 17-year-old Tennessee student, was suspended for saying "bless you" after a fellow student sneezed. Her teacher at Dyer County High School had warned that there would be no godly or church talk in her classroom. After using the common expression when the fellow student sneezed, Yurner was sent to the principal's office where she was given an in-school suspension.During a meeting with Turner's parents and school leaders, the teacher said Turner was being "disruptive" and "aggressive" in class and continued to defend her use of the phrase when the teacher called her out for breaking the rules.A number of students at the school, meanwhile, showed their support for their schoolmate by making their own "Bless You" tee shirts. Turner said she didn't want any trouble for the teacher, but wants it known that "it's all right to defend God" and that she has a constitutional right under the freedom of religion and free speech.In California, a school district has apologized to parents for a "humiliating" program that had special needs students searching the garbage cans at the school for bottles and cans to recycle as part of a "life skills" class. The students then turned in the recyclables for the 5-cent deposit and used the money for projects at Patriot High School.Carmen Wells, a parent of a special education student, said the program caused the children shame and embarrassment. She first learned about it from her son Marcus, who has autism, and came home upset.He said that teachers made him pick through garbage cans while wearing heavy gloves and an apron. After she and another parent complained, the school district at first defended the program, saying it had been going on for years.During a school board meeting, Arianna Lizarraga, a former special education student, sobbed as she described how humiliating it was to pick through garbage at the school. Her mother, Rhonelda Lizarraga, said although it bothered her daughter, she went along with it because she wanted to be accepted by her peers.In these last two cases in Tennessee and California, it's the school officials, not the students, who should be embarrassed and ashamed and need the coaching.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com