Today's Lesson: Suicide Notes

Brett Singer — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Students at a school in Wales were asked to write imaginary (we hope!) suicide notes in class. But wait, there's more: the school is very close to a town where several teenagers hanged themselves.

The town of Bridgend, in South Wales, had had seventeen suicides since January of 2007. Police are investigating the possibility that some of the deaths were linked in some way.

Back to the school: the "Year Nine" class (the UK equivalent of Ninth Grade) was reading Checkmate, a novel form the Noughts & Crosses Trilogy by Malorie Blackman. In the book, the main character apparently finds a suicide note from his sister. The students were asked to write their own version of the note.

Local parents freaked out, of course. A statement by the school that the teacher didn't "connect" the assignment to local events didn't exactly do much to calm everybody down.

This reminds me of 8th grade, when we read Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Great book, kind of depressing. If you're not familiar with the story, part of it includes Angelou being sexually abused as a child, an event that is described in excruciating (and very well-written) detail. Did we talk about it in class? Sure. But we didn't have to write monologues imagining that we were abused like Angelou was. You know Method Acting, where actors adopt the behaviors of their characters? This is almost Method Teaching: "the character wrote a suicide note, so we're going to do the same thing." If the kids had written a play about suicide and performed it, or talked to a suicide counselor, it might have been better. Parents still would have freaked, but at least the activity would have been less isolating for the participants.

I do have to give credit to local school officials for standing by the teacher. They issued their statement, acknowledging that maybe this wasn't the best classroom activity. But at least they didn't go overboard the way we sometimes do in this country, such as when Joseph A. Fernandez was fired from his post as New York City Schools Chancellor, largely for recommending a curriculum that included the book Heather Has Two Mommies. Still, the Wales teacher must be a tad clueless (at best), since the school is located about 12 miles from what the article calls a "suicide hotspot."

image: Amazon.com

Teen Kills Herself Over Fake MySpace Boyfriend Created By Adults

Kelly Mills — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:02:00 GMT

If you've been following this story, you know it is devastatingly twisted. Megan Meier, a thirteen-year-old girl, met a sixteen-year-old boy named Josh on MySpace. He told her she was pretty and they had an online relationship. Then Josh abruptly told her he didn't want to be her friend anymore because he heard she was mean. He began posting bulletins: Megan is a slut. Megan is fat. Megan, who took medication for depression and ADHD, went upstairs to her room and hung herself. She died the next day.

Six weeks after Megan died, her parents learned that Josh was not a real person--he was created by the parents of a girl who lived down the street, a girl who had once been Megan's friend. The messages had been sent by the parents and their daughter, and they had invited another girl to join in the fun. Before the ambulance left Megan's house they called this girl and told her not to tell anyone about the MySpace profile. These neighbors were friends with Megan's family. They attended Megan's funeral.

The paper that broke the story did not print the names of these parents, and bloggers howled in protest. Some, most notably Jezebel, went on to print their names. There's some journalistic questions in there, about what information is necessary and important to report and what does more harm than good. All really good issues to consider, but mostly I could give a rat's ass about that because I read this as a parent, thinking of Megan's parents' pain.

I highly recommend reading the St. Charles Journal report on Megan's death, but be prepared for heartbreak. Megan's mother blames herself. She was angry at her daughter for not logging off when asked. She was home when Megan killed herself. She and Megan's father have basically no recourse against the family that did this. And I cannot find strong enough words for the disgust I feel towards adults--parents themselves--who tormented a teenage girl. On some level I understand all kinds of cruelty, but this one is almost beyond me. It's despicable and insanely sick and just gross. I fervently hope the rest of their lives are a daily hell.

Strollerderby : teen suicide

Today's Lesson: Suicide Notes

Teen Kills Herself Over Fake MySpace Boyfriend Created By Adults