Suicide Is No Option This morning I heard the following headline: "Students signed a petition so one page in their year book could be dedicated to a classmate who had committed suicide".
I tuned in because I was touched by it, but what I was listening to turned my stomach upside down. The reason why those students signed that petition was to convince their school that that was the right thing to do for their absent friend. - That's all, but nothing has changed as the school still refuses to commemorate that kid, and that's quite outrageous, to say the least. Why is it that someone who takes their lives becomes stigmatized as outcasts? Back to that ignorant school for a second, seriously as tragic as the whole matter is, what difference does it make how someone died? Dead is dead after all! Had that guy been killed in a car crash or in a homicide, would the school have acknowledged his death? Would they still be opposing the kids' wish to honor that person's life on an extra page within their year book? Most likely they wouldn't. However, since that boy killed himself for reasons that have probably not been investigated at all on part of his school, this is apparently no longer a feasible option. Shame on the principal and his teachers! I am no psychiatrist, but there's a strong possibility that school among other troublesome circumstances might have triggered that guy's decision to ultimately commit suicide. A teenager's life can be anything but care- free, joyous and easy- going. Quite on the contrary, often times adolescents are in incredible struggles with basically everyone and everything around them spanning from their parents, schools, friends, jobs, relationships to their own personal insecurities. Quite obviously, nobody really paid enough attention to that young man's silent cries for help, and now those who were supposed to help in second place right after his family have the audacity to still turn a deaf ear on the simple and innocent plea to print one darn page about his life in their year book. Just great where we as a society are going to!
Right down the toilet this is, and so again shame on all of us that are giving some individuals the permission to just keep still. Truly disgusted, I wish that this piece of news is a wake- up call for each and everyone. Those who didn't walk in this young man's shoes do not have the right to condemn his actions because they simply don't know what it's like to be suicidal. I know first hand what it's like because I've been there myself, and in my case school played a key role in my daily struggles as a teenager. Later in life when I was teaching myself, I made sure that I kept the channel of conversation open between my students and I. At the slightest sign I would jump and catch those who were in jeopardy of throwing their lives away. Luckily, I was there to save a few kids back then, but then I lost one dear student of mine years after she had graduated. This crushed me because what I would do in my English classes was spend 50 minutes talking about suicide and its horrific consequences karmically as well as otherwise whenever that special lesson came up. Unfortunately, I could not save this one student from ending her life as nobody will be able to ever prevent all suicides from happening, but what we should do at least is honor all those who we knew and cared for no matter if they terminated their own lives, got killed or died of natural causes. We all need to come to the understanding that suicide is by no means negative or bad but just a very unfortunate and heart- breaking choice to abruptly leave one's life behind. I was over- joyed to hear that my former student was given a nice funeral service by her church, and hundreds of people had gathered to say their last good- byes. So, if the Catholic church can do it, that school should reconsider their point of view as well, don't you think so?
I tuned in because I was touched by it, but what I was listening to turned my stomach upside down. The reason why those students signed that petition was to convince their school that that was the right thing to do for their absent friend. - That's all, but nothing has changed as the school still refuses to commemorate that kid, and that's quite outrageous, to say the least. Why is it that someone who takes their lives becomes stigmatized as outcasts? Back to that ignorant school for a second, seriously as tragic as the whole matter is, what difference does it make how someone died? Dead is dead after all! Had that guy been killed in a car crash or in a homicide, would the school have acknowledged his death? Would they still be opposing the kids' wish to honor that person's life on an extra page within their year book? Most likely they wouldn't. However, since that boy killed himself for reasons that have probably not been investigated at all on part of his school, this is apparently no longer a feasible option. Shame on the principal and his teachers! I am no psychiatrist, but there's a strong possibility that school among other troublesome circumstances might have triggered that guy's decision to ultimately commit suicide. A teenager's life can be anything but care- free, joyous and easy- going. Quite on the contrary, often times adolescents are in incredible struggles with basically everyone and everything around them spanning from their parents, schools, friends, jobs, relationships to their own personal insecurities. Quite obviously, nobody really paid enough attention to that young man's silent cries for help, and now those who were supposed to help in second place right after his family have the audacity to still turn a deaf ear on the simple and innocent plea to print one darn page about his life in their year book. Just great where we as a society are going to!
Right down the toilet this is, and so again shame on all of us that are giving some individuals the permission to just keep still. Truly disgusted, I wish that this piece of news is a wake- up call for each and everyone. Those who didn't walk in this young man's shoes do not have the right to condemn his actions because they simply don't know what it's like to be suicidal. I know first hand what it's like because I've been there myself, and in my case school played a key role in my daily struggles as a teenager. Later in life when I was teaching myself, I made sure that I kept the channel of conversation open between my students and I. At the slightest sign I would jump and catch those who were in jeopardy of throwing their lives away. Luckily, I was there to save a few kids back then, but then I lost one dear student of mine years after she had graduated. This crushed me because what I would do in my English classes was spend 50 minutes talking about suicide and its horrific consequences karmically as well as otherwise whenever that special lesson came up. Unfortunately, I could not save this one student from ending her life as nobody will be able to ever prevent all suicides from happening, but what we should do at least is honor all those who we knew and cared for no matter if they terminated their own lives, got killed or died of natural causes. We all need to come to the understanding that suicide is by no means negative or bad but just a very unfortunate and heart- breaking choice to abruptly leave one's life behind. I was over- joyed to hear that my former student was given a nice funeral service by her church, and hundreds of people had gathered to say their last good- byes. So, if the Catholic church can do it, that school should reconsider their point of view as well, don't you think so?
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