[-dustin]

this past sunday, 2 UT students died. one was hit by a taxi in his hometown (freshman), one committed suicide in his dorm room (graduating senior [graduated HS in 2002], prepping for MCAT). the former had a write-up in the school paper. the latter had no mention. anywhere. in fact, the only thing found on the net about the latter was his obituary. is that typical?

there have been 3 articles in the school's paper about a band student dieing.

who controls what gets in the papers? families?

there was nothing mentioned about the Red Lake shootings.

 

[caputo1989]

Odd.........

 

[Mattoid]

that certainly is strange... maybe a letter to the editor is in order.

 

[CHOP]

I have known of a few suicides in the local area over the years. Unless involved in a murder-suicide there was never any mention in the news (tv nor papers).

 

[sanjuro]

My friend and I have been going back and forth about this ever since I moved to SF: how many people jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. You never hear any stories about it, but on a visit many years ago, some one stopped his car on the bridge and jumped right in front of my friend.

There is a film coming out documenting the suicides and attempts at the Golden Gate for a whole year in the daytime. 19 people killed themselves and there were also several failed attempts. None of this made the newspaper.

 

[Psychic_Pimp]

Suicide attempts are a regular thing off the Aurora bridge here in Seattle too. They never make the news here either. I wondered about this and found out some things from friends in the media and emergency services about ten years back when a high-school friend jumed off the bridge.

Suicides are bad press for a few reasons, they are frequently embarrassing for the family, there is a very real risk of copy-cats (have you seen the movie: Suicide Club?), News wants more sensation, violence, action, etc. It's a touchy subject and just a sad thing generally when someone is so messed up that they take their own lives. Not good press. Unless, like Chop said, there's something else to the story besides some poor schmuck who's had enough of this life.

 

[Echo]

I think a lot of times, suicides are given less coverage for the same reason you usually don't see the fan running around on the field during a baseball game on TV. It's a often a call for attention, and if it doesn't allow someone to acheive notoriety, maybe less people will do it.

 

[MudGrrl]

I was a cop in the Air Force.

One of my duties was to work in Nebraska, guarding....stuff (I can't tell you, I would have to kill you).

This all happened exactly 7 years ago to the day.

Anyway, we got a call from a local unit, there were shots fired..and we had to respond. It turns out that a complete newbie had just lost his girlfriend, was already having financial problems, and it was his first day in the field.

So he ate the business end of an M-16.

My friend was 'posted' on the body, to make sure it didn't go anywhere (don't ask). This was the second time in 3 years that he was posted on a suicide.

Our whole unit was sent through suicide awareness training, which took up our off duty time, which in turn stressed us out even more.

There was an argument to lower the base flag to show respect, which ended up pissing us off to no end.....
He killed himself because he couldn't deal with breaking off a relationship and some bills. What a way to be remembered.

I'm not going to lie...I have thought about it, as I am sure a lot of other people have. But I am a very selfish individual....I want to experience as much as I can of life, because it's so much shorter than death. There's plenty of time to be dead.

I think that religious issues also bring about the hush hush quality of suicides, as well as the whole copycat phenomena.

 

[Jr_Bullit]

A dood I went to HS with had a suicide step in front of his car one night. Really messed him up in the head. I was good friends with his brothers' girlfriend so we all used to hang out...I remember seeing him like 2 years after it happened...He'd been in and out of counseling and drug rehab since the incident as he turned to heavy drugs to try and erase the memory...

 

[=[Stinky]=]

Most of the suicides we see in Atlanta is people jumping off bridges, to the freeway below. And usually the only reason it gets news coverage is b/c there is a 4 hour traffic standstill.

 

[Psychic_Pimp]

A dood I went to HS with had a suicide step in front of his car one night. Really messed him up in the head. I was good friends with his brothers' girlfriend so we all used to hang out...I remember seeing him like 2 years after it happened...He'd been in and out of counseling and drug rehab since the incident as he turned to heavy drugs to try and erase the memory...

To me this is the worst part of a suicide, the effect it has on other people.

 

[dh girlie]

My friend and I have been going back and forth about this ever since I moved to SF: how many people jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. You never hear any stories about it, but on a visit many years ago, some one stopped his car on the bridge and jumped right in front of my friend.

There is a film coming out documenting the suicides and attempts at the Golden Gate for a whole year in the daytime. 19 people killed themselves and there were also several failed attempts. None of this made the newspaper.

I heard about that film...the guy set up a camera pointed right at the spot where almost all jumps take place, under the south tower on the bay side, but he apparently told the bridge authority that it was for some other research...they want to ban that film.

 

[sanjuro]

I heard about that film...the guy set up a camera pointed right at the spot where almost all jumps take place, under the south tower on the bay side, but he apparently told the bridge authority that it was for some other research...they want to ban that film.

Yeah, that's right. The question I have is my interest in this film morbid or not? I suppose so.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

the favourite bridge by suicides around here. so many suicides, that they put 2 security guards full time there to prevent people from jumping. a good 80ft free fall.

the other place is a 35story gvmt building in the middle of the city.. eeeeewwwwwww....

 

[blue]

Yeah, I knew a couple people in Salt Lake that committed suicide, one blew his brains out when he was drunk, the other used the ol' sleeping pills method. Really sad, and they don't get media attention. I too think it's the family embarassment/copycat prevention factors.

I'm not sure...maybe they should get coverage, it would bring a lot more attention to the very common problem and maybe motivate people to help.

 

[-dustin]

apparently the kid who committed suicide in his dorm was displaying classic signs just before he did it. but no one did anything, 'cause it was Spring Break, i guess. i don't know.

 

[llkoolkeg]

There probably isn't anyone alive that hasn't considered it. Whether it be religion, friends, an 'awakening', fear or whatever...there is always reason enough to hang on to that bottom knot if you just look around...and if the view is THAT bad, it's time to pull up stakes and pitch your tent elsewhere. Sometimes a change of scenery is all it takes to provide enough perspective and motivation to endure and transcend that which haunts you.

 

[dexter]

One of my buddies (its weird I am actually typing this in his old dorm room in Florida) took his life over x mass break. Shot himself in the head, one of the saddest things If not the most in my life. Kid introduced me to well over 300+ people, made parties 100x more fun, always had some crazy adventure and what not. Pretty much whenever you were around the kid you couldnt be sad, and of all people he took his life not some of our other more likely friends. **** really sucks, but yes around here and back home its major hush hush, ESP. here at school and to people who didnt know him. He had the third largest funeral in Littleton in the past 25 years, all kids and family friends who got the great chance to meet him and have him bless their life.
RIP and no one should do this to themselve, its horrible and hurts so many people around you.

 

[HedgeHog]

A neighbor of my did himself in with a shotgun. I never really knew the guy. He kept to himself. He did go over and spend time with another neighbor and his family. We later found out the day after he killed himslef was supposed to be his first day in court... for child molestation charges.

I guess he was guilty. The witness list was apparently quite long and the crimes he was accused of happened over many years. The guy down the street kinda freaked when he found out because the guy REALLY liked playing with his kids.

None of this was in the paper or on the TV.

 

[Mike B.]

Back in 2000, I left school for a semester to do an engineering co-op. Another guy from the school was going to do a co-op at the same company so we decided we'd look for an apartment together to save money. Seemed like the nicest, most normal kid in the world with a really good family (at least from my point of view). Anyway, we lived together for about a month and a half and were getting along great, he was even a mountainbiker.

Long story short, I went away for a weekend to Army Reserves and when I returned Sunday evening there was a state trooper in my apartment and the door was hanging wide open. Turns out the kid had gone out and rented some movies, went to a computer show and bought a router to set up our apartment network, came home, typed a note and left it up on his monitor, jumped in his new car, drove to a local park and hung himself.

He was very well liked back in his hometown, an Eagle scout, active in his church, a good student just one year from a mechanical engineering degree. Nothing was ever published except a short obit. that mentioned an "untimely death." The school paper never mentioned and the company we worked for never mentioned it.

He still pops in to my head from time to time, like I feel I should have seen something coming.

 

[RhinofromWA]

I think death in general has been discussed more vocally in recent years, than it was in the past. I have talked with people that said people didn't talk about deaths in the past. Many people (older people/family mind you) are always suprised when they see road side crosses. Mind you most of the people I have heard it from are from MN (north farm country) They said they would NEVER have done something like the crosses a few decades ago.

You don't advertise someone died at some place on the side of the road.

Anyway, I thought that was an interesting way to look at it. In the past, it wouldn't get much more than a obituary.

 

[splat]

MY Brother in Law , ate the buisness end of a 44 a couple of years ago, he had Drug addiction problems which off course led to Finacial problems , and so on and so forth. till he finally felt there was no other way out.

The thing that gets me was his parents knew about all the problems he was having , and he was in councilling, and the councellor told his parents not to help him ( finacially ) , that it would just encourage him along the drug lines. I don't know, maybe its me but had they helped him maybe he'd still be alive. any way after his suicide the lawyers advised them not to have any story in the newspaper about or it could be considered hindering an Police investigation.

the really sad Part was he had had Major drug problems in his early to mid 20's and beat it and was clean for over 15 years ( he once told me about some of the paranoid crasy stuff he did back then ) then he started sleeping with this chick who he would discover was a heroin addict and it just led him down a bad road.

 

[Repack]

....

There is a film coming out documenting the suicides and attempts at the Golden Gate for a whole year in the daytime. 19 people killed themselves and there were also several failed attempts. None of this made the newspaper.

I saw the footage that lead to that in a film class last year. There are motion sensing cameras that are tripped when someone jumps. Weird.


As for the coverage. it is difficult to spin a headline line"22 year old in perfect health found dead in dorm". What are people going to think? I sucks all the way around. If you say anything, people will always think "suicide." If nobody says anything, there is nothing to think of. The people who 'need to know" will be at the memorial, while everyone else goes on about their lives and the family doesn't have to worry quite so much about the specter of a suicide.

Its not like the person jumped oin front of a car. You can't say things like "he dodn't hear the train coming." When I was in HS a girl in my class jumped in front of a train. Once homocide was ruled out, the cause of death was listed as "Accidental". Everyone knew it was suicude. It was just a way to protect the family.

Its all about protecting the family. Don't think that they are ignoring the victim.

 

[Mike B.]

I was talking to my wife about this topic tonight and she reminded me of a suicide that was published in our college newspaper. They actually listed the cause of death as auto-erotic asphyxiation. The guy was an RA in the dorms and was found in his room the day after.

 

[TN]

this past sunday, 2 UT students died. one was hit by a taxi in his hometown (freshman), one committed suicide in his dorm room (graduating senior [graduated HS in 2002], prepping for MCAT). the former had a write-up in the school paper. the latter had no mention. anywhere. in fact, the only thing found on the net about the latter was his obituary. is that typical?

there have been 3 articles in the school's paper about a band student dieing.

who controls what gets in the papers? families?

there was nothing mentioned about the Red Lake shootings.

I work in TV so I dont know about print media, but we have a strict policy against covering suicides...we wont do it at all (local, not famous peeps). I think the thinking behind it is, they dont want people killing themselves just to get on the news.

 

[manimal]

ironic thread. i worked a suicide just last week. dude was a little bit mental and his hottie wife had just served him with separation papers. his co-workers hadn't heard from him in a few days and knew he was depressed. they called the po-po to go and check on his welfare at his house. front door was open but i went around back to see inside. saw him laying on the ground in the kitchen through the window. went inside and discovered him lying on the floor in a pool of blood/vomit/brains. .357 Magnum snubnose to his temple. i'll leave out the image details of what was left of his head.

the sad thing was the suicide note. his wife was already feeling a little bit guilty over leaving him, and the note, which i didn't tell her about (will let the detectives make that call), went something like this. "goodbye........marriage is forever....blah,blah,blah....TILL DEATH DO US PART; I RELEASE YOU"

That seemed pretty rough to me, if she ever reads the blood/brain matter covered letter, i'm sure it'll hurt a lot...that's one hell of a guilt trip.

anyhoo...there was no mention of his suicide in the paper either. i think it's usually out of respect for the family.