Recent Fairfax teen suicides raise many unanswered questions
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Fairfax times
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Date: October 28, 2014 01:54PM
Three Fairfax County teens whose lives all ended abruptly within the last month — two of whom were discovered near train tracks — could potentially point to a phenomenon called “suicide contagion,” experts say.
On Oct. 15, the body of 15-year-old Brooke Buesking, a sophomore at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, was discovered near train tracks that run behind the Burke Centre shopping center. Fairfax County police confirmed that at 9 p.m. that evening, an Amtrak train had hit a person in that area, near Sideburn and New Guinea roads.
About two weeks earlier, on Sept. 28, the body of Cara Lynn Golias, 16, a junior at Fairfax High School, was discovered by police near a railroad bridge trestle in the 13200 block of Yates Ford Road in Hemlock Overlook Regional Park near Clifton. Four days before that, Emma Clark, a senior at South Lakes High School, also died unexpectedly, the details of her death shrouded in mystery.
“Understanding death, especially the death of a peer, can be a very difficult experience. For that reason, we hope that you will listen to your son or daughter as well as discuss with them their feelings and reactions to this tragedy,” South Lakes High School Principal Kim Retzer wrote in an email to students and their families following Clark’s untimely death.
Across the country, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens, and results in about 4,600 lives lost each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to suicide experts, three deaths within a month by three students within the same school system — all girls of similar age and at least two of which occurred in the same manner — could very well be the result of what experts call “suicide contagion.”
According to Dr. Richard McKeon, chief of the suicide prevention branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “suicide contagion” means that the death by suicide of one youth can influence others. “Typically you are talking about influencing other very vulnerable youth, others who might already have thoughts of suicide or may be suffering from depression or substance abuse. Media coverage of one suicide that details specifically how a suicide took place may seem to glamorize it, and may even become an inadvertent ‘how-to’ manual for another student who is already vulnerable,” he said.
According to the Fairfax County Public Schools Youth Survey for 2013-14, nearly 33 percent of high school seniors reported feeling sad to the point of hopelessness within the last year, and nearly 19 percent of 10th-graders reported that they had seriously considered suicide. Of all students who reported seriously considering suicide within the last year, female students outnumbered male students 2 to 1.
Michelle Cornette, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Suicidology, said that two young girls within the same school system who both chose to take their lives by stepping in front of a train within two weeks of each other “could certainly point to contagion,” but Cornette said nationwide, suicide by train is not one of the more frequently seen methods.
“We see firearms, hanging and drowning much more frequently,” she said. “But stepping out in front of a train certainly would be an easy method to access.”
Former American Association of Suicidology director, Dr. Lanny Berman, performed a nationwide study in 2009 which focused specifically on suicide victims who threw themselves in front of moving trains. “People choose methods of suicide mostly because of their relative accessibility,” he said in an email this week. “If a gun is available in the home it is most likely to be used by someone intent on dying by suicide [but] Metro tracks are readily accessed in urban and suburban communities.”
In February, Jack Chen, 15, a sophomore at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, took his life by stepping in front of a commuter train after writing his family a note saying, “There is too much stress in my life from school and the environment it creates, expectations for sports, expectations from my friends and expectations from my family.”
Chen had a 4.3 GPA at the time of his death. Golias, whose body was discovered near a railroad bridge trestle in Clifton on Sept. 28, also had a 4.3 GPA, and was taking multiple Advanced Placement courses. She also was a passionate athlete, dedicating eight years to the FPYC Lions soccer team, as well as playing volleyball her freshman year, and running cross-country her sophomore and junior years.
“It may surprise some people that a teen who is the prom queen and who is also the soccer team captain would commit suicide,” said Cornette. “But they shouldn’t be surprised. It is not always those with abject lives who commit suicide. It is all a matter of self-perception. Just because teens have things going for them doesn’t mean they don’t perceive themselves as troubled, or as having issues.”
Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman John Torre said FCPS does not keep an annual tally of the number of suicides or suicide attempts made by students, but W.T. Woodson High School alone has had at least six apparent suicides within the last three years.
“Many FCPS high schools have ongoing depression screening efforts targeted to either specific grade levels in grades nine through 12, as well as ongoing crisis intervention training in which counselors, psychologists and social workers have been provided enhanced training in crisis preparedness, prevention, response and recovery,” Torre said.