Teen Suicides. Scary Times

[CS1983]

Regarding copycat suicides:

When we lived in Littleton, the priest at our parish had been a Naval Chaplain to Marines. Prior to becoming a priest, he had been a USMC Officer... infantry I believe.

As a chaplain, he had a commander come to him once and ask what he could do about a spate of suicides. He was blunt: stop making suicide a way to get attention; no more rallies, memorials, etc. beyond that which is necessary.

He said it works the same way in schools.

What happens is person 1 kills themselves. Others, seeing the attention and outpouring of support for the deceased, decide this is a good way to "be someone". So they kill themselves, too.

This continues until it becomes clear this is no longer a way to get attention, or at least positive attention.

Sounds harsh, but I tend to agree with him on this.

[BigBear]

Regarding copycat suicides:

When we lived in Littleton, the priest at our parish had been a Naval Chaplain to Marines. Prior to becoming a priest, he had been a USMC Officer... infantry I believe.

As a chaplain, he had a commander come to him once and ask what he could do about a spate of suicides. He was blunt: stop making suicide a way to get attention; no more rallies, memorials, etc. beyond that which is necessary.

He said it works the same way in schools.

What happens is person 1 kills themselves. Others, seeing the attention and outpouring of support for the deceased, decide this is a good way to "be someone". So they kill themselves, too.

This continues until it becomes clear this is no longer a way to get attention, or at least positive attention.

Sounds harsh, but I tend to agree with him on this.

I agree too... we've also had that discussion in meetings.

[Duman]

Regarding copycat suicides:

When we lived in Littleton, the priest at our parish had been a Naval Chaplain to Marines. Prior to becoming a priest, he had been a USMC Officer... infantry I believe.

As a chaplain, he had a commander come to him once and ask what he could do about a spate of suicides. He was blunt: stop making suicide a way to get attention; no more rallies, memorials, etc. beyond that which is necessary.

He said it works the same way in schools.

What happens is person 1 kills themselves. Others, seeing the attention and outpouring of support for the deceased, decide this is a good way to "be someone". So they kill themselves, too.

This continues until it becomes clear this is no longer a way to get attention, or at least positive attention.

Sounds harsh, but I tend to agree with him on this.

And yet we build memorials to commemorate school shootings....

[Gman]

And yet we build memorials to commemorate school shootings....

....and bring it up every flipping year....I guess forever.