Teen Dressed As Two-Face Killed Himself In Crowded School Hallway

The prayer caught my attention too. I saw all this on FB People are on this bullying kick and assume all kids are bullied if they commit suicide. There are many reasons why young teens feel suicide is the only way out. Not all are bullied
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/suicide.html

“How cynical have I become that the only thing about this story that shocked me was that there’s a public junior high school that allows prayer time and has Super Hero Dress-Up Day?”

Amen.

Aw fuck, now I feel moderately bad for making fun of a dead kids hair.

When I was a kid (80s/90s) we had a “Moment of Silence” , I TOTALLY forgot about that until I read prayer time. It was a way kids who were religious could pray & the rest of us could just sit & daydream for 60 seconds. It was after the Pledge of Alleigance I think.
ANYWAY. There has been a rise in bully awareness AND teen suicide. Someone should do some research on that. How much is passed off as a reaction to bullying and how much is because we aren’t raising our young people to be strong in the face of adversity?

I think suicide crosses everyone’s mind at one point in their life or another. Growing up is a bitch and I have to say I think the ~15 year old age is probably one of the most difficult. You’re not a child and you’re not a grown up. Obviously social media has exacerbated this difficulty, or so it would seem. RIP little man. Regardless of the reason, it would have gotten better after a while. It always does.

I once read a study that determined that some social behaviors, specifically eating disorders and suicide, are “contagious” behaviors. It may very well be that our increased coverage of teen suicides is contributing to more of them.

I think they might have been having a prayer time because of “See you at the pole” day. (???) That’s a nationally-promoted, once-a-year, voluntary gathering of students who meet at the school’s flagpole, before school hours, to have a short time of group prayer. Sometimes there is singing and Bible reading as well.

I understand the the crowd “at the pole” is usually not very big. In fact, most of the students at a lot of schools don’t participate, or even know it is going on. That makes sense to me, since the gathering is usually promoted at church youth groups and such. I think there is a good possibility that the prayer time and this poor boy’s suicide might be totally unrelated. But it does add an interesting aspect, especially to get people’s attention.

This was Oklahoma. The prayer thing didn’t surprise me at all. When my sister’s kids were still in public schools near Tulsa, her son went to a bible-study group that met before school They even had sweatshirts made for their group. Unfortunately, the mascot for that elementary school was The Trojans. So I kid you not, my 10 year old nephew shows up to visit the rest of us (here in the big city, St. Louis) in a sweatshirt with “TROJANS FOR CHRIST” emblazoned on the back.

Of course the school won’t admit to bullying. There were gangs in my daughter’s school that would walk into the class and beat a student but the school said it never happened. My daughter had to drop out of school to these ” non existing bullies”. And dig dug sounds like the guy that’s on the FB memorial making fun of this kid’s death. It’s the same coin remark being used on there.

Now he’s no-face.

That’s a rule now. My middle-schooler had a designated class JUST to read for 20 min. And now in elementary it’s called DEAR Time. Drop Everything And Read.

Sonot only did the kid die, his bullies got a day off for his suicide AND they sadly got the last word? Fuck that. Their asses should get detention for the rest of the summer.

Well, there’s a comment made in poor taste, if you ask me.

That is wrong on at least two plus reasons… the clean one is the most amazing.

how nice prayer in the school, I couldn’t even say pledge of allegiance here in california :/ , but I wonder if maybe the religion or parents had anything to do with it? its not always bullies. Such a sad story, wish he didn’t do it, and I wish he left a note just so the people who made him commit suicide, if any, can be mentally guilty for life. I also wonder if it was an adult that made him commit suicide, a “sandusky” or “cheesmo priest” type, was the school a private religious school? of all the ways to go, sucide so young has to be the most hurtful to the living, all the potential and life he could have given back if only he had someone to help him.

I don’t mind it much, I always knew I had no soul.

The prayer thing is actually not unusual. They called it “prayer”, but in all likelihood, it was either a “moment of silence” thing or prayer only for those who wish it. Here in NC, in the piedmont, almost every school has FCA (fellow christian athletes). And they still sing christmas songs with the word christ in them when chorus puts on a show, even doing so at churches when the school auditorium is being used for something else. No one forces anyone else to engage, and no one gets their panties in a twist. I don’t want religion shoved down my daughter and stepdaughters’ throats, but I think it’s ridiculous for people to have a case of the vapors over the word God or some kids just praying to themselves before school. Live and let live…the schools our kids and family go to in this area kind of have that mentality…everyone seems pretty happy with it, atheist and christian alike.

Me too!

Kids are in school to learn, not pray. They can pray at home. They can pray all day in church. They can pray when they take a dump, etc. There is no need for a daily moment of silence in school. However, it is a quasi mystery to me why a moment of silence in school where some people choose to pray is so offensive to some people.

I agree…a public school allowing prayer…What is this Iran?

This is so fucking sad, I feel really bad for his family, and for all of the kids that were there.

Except none of them advocated bullying gingers because of their appearance and you shut your mouth about Christian Bale. He was in American Psycho and only did Batman for the money.

This bullying thing is becoming a cop out. there was tons more bullying when i was his age as trhere is now. No one killed themselves or others over it. Putting everyone in a bubble and making kids uber fagile has backfired. There are no spines anymore.

I might have found God.

If you found god while wanking in a school hallway, you could start a new religion and could have an endless supply of new followers who pay you 10% of their allowance and eventual earnings, tax free. At first, you would be a cult leader. Cult leaders are cool, but aren’t really taken seriously by the masses.

As your following grew, you could become a charismatic spiritual leader, then a prophet and ultimately a god. If this doesn’t encourage you to go wank at the nearest elementary school tomorrow during the moments of silence, nothing will. Except of course for sick, deviant urges that would get you locked up and a story on Dreamin Demon.

Not according to the law. Not according to common sense. However, the recently established code of wussy supports your claim.

I dunno… the family and school both say “no record of bullying.” Yes, he could have been bullied without either knowing about it. But I’m more willing to lean closet gay, possibly with homophobic family, or more likely just plain mentally ill, and untreated. I too, considered suicide more times than I’d care to admit, as a teenager. And I was only “bullied” a few times, all of them isolated incidents, that if I complained about them now, I’d feel compelled to call myself a wuss if no one else did.

It must be that superior intellect we possess which allows us to recognize how futile and pointless life truly is…

Anyways, what Wikipedia has to say about animal suicide.

ha Timeout taken, I’m back!

You’re right, in suicide studies they’re called clusters. I served on a suicide council for a couple of years and we monitored them in our state. We would work with the schools, especially, to encourage awareness of possible copycat behavior. I haven’t seen any recent studies but in my opinion it has to do with social media and all the attention paid to these deaths. Just from the work I do with teens, I can almost guarantee you that these kids do not really grasp the concept of death being forever, and are able to literally play out in their mind the attention they will receive to the point that they believe they will be able to know what is going on. Of course, not all suicides are because of this, but I think that is why we are seeing more and more of them.

JGo, put down the alcohol. The article stated that neither the school nor his parents believed bullying was involved. Wanna wrestle?

I down voted you because I’m getting a little bit jealous of your secret admirer.

When did this slew of sensitive people show up? And I think maybe the definition of gallows humor should be displayed somewhere prominently on the FP. POor little things need a warning.

Yours worked when I pushed it.

Pffft. Me pushing that little button is the closet you’ll ever get to that, buddy.

Until you turn. Then I’ll be hightailing it with both hands planted firmly on my junk.

I didn’t see any humor in Sam’s comment, sorry. It would be humor if the kid had killed himself playing Russian roulette. Or even jumping off a water tower or something. (“Har Har, what a dummy!”). This was a tragic, deliberate, public suicide. Nobody shoots theirself in the head because they think they’re invincible. Bad, unfunny, stupid joke. Funny can override good taste. The balance here was way off and I thought it needed saying.

While reporting suicide on the news could cause a cluster suicide incident, it can also increase awareness of suicide and de-stigmatise having suicidal thoughts. I still believe that suicide is an incredibly selfish thing to do, but if people who were thinking of it actually spoke up without fear, then maybe some can be prevented.

When I was a freshman in High School this kid who sat across from me in my geography class named Robbie blew his head off over the weekend. When we all came to school the next week we were informed of his suicide. When I got to my geography class in the afternoon everyone seemed startled to see me. Everyone thought I was that kid named Robbie who killed himself.

I’m not sure what’s more depressing…that my classmates didn’t bother to learn my name or that they never bothered to learn Robbie’s.

My best friend is a ginger, and I’m quite sure she would agree.

It was my mother who snuffed it when I was six years old. I don’t think expecting a parent to live long enough to raise her children is asking for too much. If you think that makes me selfish, I could not care less.

I wasn’t so much referring to the news reporting it but social media like Facebook and Twitter. Where I’m from, newspapers and TV channels will not print or air stories involving the suicides of minors to minimize clusters. I also believe that in certain circumstances that suicide is selfish (a parent killing their children and then themselves) but for children and teens it is a completely different animal.

I don’t expect you to care. I would, however, expect you to give another perspective some consideration before getting defensive. Of course, knowing it was your mom explains that, a bit.

I lost my mother under some very similar circumstances, only a bit later in life. I had just turned 21, and my family imploded. I had to assume immediate custody of my teenage sister because my father lost it. I had to care for my father as well. I was very angry for several years. Then, watching others go through what she went through gave me some perspective. I loved my mom, but a person that broken is a shit parent. She probably should have offed herself earlier.

Of course, had she, I probably would have felt a little more like you about it.

I actually thought I would be roasted alive for the comment. I can’t resist sometimes. I know this is tragic and shouldn’t be made into a joke. But sometimes I just shoot straight from the head.

Do you prefer ginger or firecrotch?

Yep, OK is notorious for allowing prayer/religious groups in schools. Every school function I ever attended growing up began and ended with a prayer.

Yeah, Jeffrey Dahmer avoided children exactly for this reason, they were tasteless.

I suspect you may have accidentally replied to the wrong comment.

I saw the Documentary “The Bridge” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_%282006_film%29 That made me think just as you about the selfishness that I felt wanting these people to stay alive when they were in so much pain. Some of the individuals could not seem to get any relief no matter the psychotropic drugs they took. Now with being said, I believe suicide as it pertains to teens is very tragic and they should be helped at all costs as I think if we can get through their teen years they can see everything will be ok. Unless of course they are truly clinically depressed. As usual @AthenaZ:disqus I always appreciate your well written point of view.

Yeah I’ve often wondered about the method where you start the car in the garage. But from what Ced and some others have said is despite “going to sleep” it is actually considered a painful way to go although it wouldn’t appear as such.

You betcha.

Another possibility for his unfortunate and premature demise is his parents could have been abusive. We will never know why he did it, but it’s convenient to place the blame on bullying.

When’s Pearl Jam gonna write a song about this?