4th teen from same Palo Alto high school commits suicide

For the fourth time in less than six months, a student from one Palo Alto high school has committed suicide, authorities say. The boy stepped in front of a train at the same location where three other students have killed themselves since May.

CalTrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew said the latest suicide of a student from high-performing Gunn High School occurred at 10:50 p.m. Monday. Another Gunn student, a boy, 17, killed himself the same way at the same spot at 8:20 a.m on May 5.

His death was followed by the suicide of a girl, 17, on the tracks at 9:59 p.m. on June 2. The third suicide occurred at the same location on Aug. 21 at 10:45 p.m.

Palo Alto police told the San Jose Mercury News that police are limiting publicity about the suicides for fear of a growing cluster.

"The research we're being told is that the more we talk about it and romanticize it, the easier it is that mentally ill or depressed people will make that leap,'' Sgt. Dan Ryan was quoted as saying. "We're taking a stand and not releasing more information."

Ryan was unavailable today, and another detective in the department's juvenile section did not return a telephone inquiry.

Suicide clusters are relatively rare, although they have existed since ancient times.

One study found that between 1% and 5% of all teen suicides in the U.S. occur in clusters, taking the lives of 100 to 200 teenagers a year. Suicide contagion has involved prison inmates, marines, religious sects and Native Americans, but in the U.S. teens and young adults make up most of the clusters, according to Suicide and Mental Health Assn. International.

Clusters have included friends or acquaintances from a single school or church and also teens who have never had any direct contact with one another, according to the organization. Some share an "environmental stressor," the association said.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that four teenagers in a New Jersey suburb committed suicide on March 11, 1987 by locking themselves in a garage with a car engine running. Six days later, a 17-year-old boy and a woman, 20, attempted suicide in the same garage by the same means, the centers reported. The garage door was later removed.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that suicides early in a cluster may influence the persons who commit suicide later in the cluster," the centers reported. "There is also research evidence that exposure to a suicide that was not part of a cluster may lead certain persons to take their own lives."

--Maura Dolan

Comments

[nadia]

sounds like the japanese movie "the suicide club"

[Victor]

"We're taking a stand and not releasing more information."

What! what was needed to be told was told already.

[hunterr83]

Humans are a strange species.

[Elder]

Yes, insane people will take a step.
It is a part of the plan of reduction of population. Too many people are on the Planet Earth.
Real and normal and in the United S..ts of America.

[Patrick]

Well the fact that this made national news kind of let the cat out of the bag didn't Sgt. Ryan Dan.

[Sophia]

My heart goes out to the families of these children. What is it with this school? What kind of things are the youth there being taught? My prayer for the parents and family members of these teens is that God would comfort them in their time of heartache and mourning and that they would find rest for their souls!

[Christopher W.]

I'm not sure that I see a problem here. If these kids are so feeble minded as to think that suicide is their best/only recourse, then they're probably right. Makes room in the gene pool for people that DO have coping skills.

[Marlena]

What a horrible story. One would think they would limit access to the tracks, rather then the information

[TheBigPicture]

Are these kids Asian, White, Hisp or what...

Can you image killing yourself over nothing at such a young age...bizarre...they have no idea what they're throwing away...

At least they're not doing the murder-suicide thing...

[Kelley]

No Victor. Often, the things that influence teens are knowing the factors around why it happened or even the events the lead up to it happening. Stress factors can often prompt someone to feel the same way. So I'm sorry
but you are wrong. This is a lot like the teens in palm springs who over a year all killed themselves. It's very tragic.

[Monika Woolsey]

I used to work at the Palo Alto Medical Center as a nutritionist, which meant I had contact with teens who were referred for help with eating disorders. I was always blown away by the tremendous pressure those kids in that community were under. Before even graduating from high school they had resumes longer than mine and more achievements under their belts than I ever will...and I'm an Ivy League graduate with a master's degree! I always thought someone needed to intervene and advocate for these kids being allowed to just be kids, not be so programmed and channeled into activities that looked good on the college application instead of what fueled their passion.

It affected me so much that even though I live in a different city now I have become active with high schoolers on behalf of my alma mater and I use my time to encourage kids to be whole, not just the sum of their resume parts.

Perhaps this situation will finally nudge those who can do something about it to step up on behalf of teens whose parents may not always be doing so.

[the rev]

Sounds like they need a visit from rev. jackson. straighten these iranians right out.

[chad]

stupid kids, stupid teachers, stupid parents, and especially stupid law enforcement (should of watch that place)just plain stupid! god bless their soul!

[Jim Thirlweel]

I agree...we need this kind of thing to strengthen the gene pool and weed out the ranks of emo losers.

[A.B.]

Between the delusions of the writer of the prayer post who invokes the man in the sky and the meanness of the cleaning up the gene pool one, lies the cold hard truth: our children are killing themselves.

They need the truth: what they want to do is kill the pain. If the pain could go, they would choose life.

Let's get that message out: share your burden and we will be there for you until the pain, not you, is gone. We can help, but you have to let us in that the pain is there. I'm sorry you have to put up with delusional do-gooders who do you no favor invoking myths which serve to validate that no one understands and mean spirited people calling you names.

You are worthy of all the integrity, reason and compassion the adults in your world have.

[william ledbetter]

This is moderated? You have some jerk applauding the suicides of teenagers and you approve that? You know you don't have to allow that, don't you?

[Think]

Parents need to teach there children about Christianity, then the kids will know where they go when the commit suicided. When people die there is only two places they can go

[Mel]

Is it possible that the "high performing" high school pressures these kids too much. They are all high school seniors who are suppose to go Ivy league...

It is Palo Alto.

[Peg]

It's really selfish and nasty to jump in front of a train and traumatize the driver and passengers and passersby. Did they ever hear of drugs?

[Anti-Emo]

Get involved with your kids, listen to them, kiss them as often as you can, be aware who their friends are(insist you meet them and their parents). Depression is a disease not a style! They might dislike you for being involved in their lives right now, but they will live to realize how petty and insignificant some High School experiences are. They will grow up and mature into beautiful people!

[cassandra colston]

that pretty freaky? did they know each other maybe it's some kind of pack? i really fell said for thier families

[Miriam Rosser]

Bless and soothe the hearts and minds of those whose children died by suicide over the past recent months in Palo Alto, California. I grew up not far from Palo Alto, in Los Altos, so I am familiar with the superb reputation of Gunn High School, and with the fact that this school attracts high-achievers and is very selective about the students it accepts. I have no statistics at hand, but living in the South Bay for twenty years acquainted me with the public opinion concerning Gunn and its exceptional students.

It is loathsome not to mention grossly insensitive to label the students as deficient in any way, and therefore dispensable, as one comment I read here did. I am a big believer in freedom of speech, but the ugliness of that comment, its sheer hatefulness, should have caught the editor's eye and, in the interest of families and friends and others of us who are grieving the unspeakable loss of these young adults, the editor ought, in my opinion, to have withheld the comment, temporarily or perhaps permanently. What possible good could come from publishing it? The screaming spectacle of a twisted mind? The shock of reading filfth from a heartless individual? You will disallow any comment with a swear word in it, yet you allow a letter that in sum is far worse in its effect than any swear word I've ever heard in my life. Here! Here! for freedom of speech. But not when the speech in question constitutes a hate crime. Expunge it! I don't read comments to your articles expecting to read such totally psychopathic thoughts: for isn't that message exactly what Hitler himself held forth about. "Oh, well, those millions of humans weren't real men, didn't deserve to live because Jews are unworthy, homosexuals are unworthy, intellectuals are dangerous and therefore unworthy, poets and artists--other than the German art and poetry that has State-Approval--are "feeble" and dangerous, because we never know, do we? Those artist-types could be communicating subversive messages in code to undermine the God-given power of the Third Reich!

"I'm not sure that I see a problem here. If these kids are so feeble minded as to think that suicide is their best/only recourse, then they're probably right. Makes room in the gene pool for people that DO have coping skills."

This is the comment I'm talking about. How utterly lacking in compassion the writer of this comment is. Maybe this writer should just do away with himself/herself to "make room in the gene pool" for people that have loving, nonjudgmental, and compassionate hearts. And, no, I don't wish for any such thing. But I do hope the editors will take better care in the future. It was already upsetting enough to read the news about the suicides without hearing his tripe.

[Let It Be]

"Makes room in the gene pool "

Dude, they're kids, trying to cope. Is it so long ago that you don't remeber what it was like. One quick impulse based on pain, anger and lonlieness, we've all done stupid stupid things as kids.

[Tony M.]

I taught at Gunn High School in the late 1980's. The pressure for students to achieve is truly intense. For example, I had a Freshman student in my office one day crying because in the third week of school he was receiving a "B+" in class. His brothers and sisters had all gone to "Ivy League" schools and now he wasn't going to get into Harvard with anything less than an "A". I can only imagine how much stress those students are under today, some twenty years later. My heart goes out to the family.

[gavric17]

Dear Sally, I'm depressed.
Signed, Felicity.