Why? Wrote:
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> After six Woodson High suicides, a search for
> solace and answers
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/after-wo
> odson-high-suicides-a-search-for-solace-and-answer
> s/2014/04/11/a394dc64-b069-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_
> story.htmlw
>
> The final evening of Jack Chen’s life was
> indistinguishable from many others. The sophomore
> returned home from school, ate dinner with his
> mother and retired to his room. His mother asked
> him to turn out his light at midnight.
>
> Inside his bedroom, anguish gnawed at him, a
> darkness invisible to friends and family: He
> maintained a 4.3 grade-point average at one of the
> area’s top high schools, was a captain of the
> junior varsity football team and had never tried
> drugs or alcohol.
>
> But that hidden pain drove Jack from his Fairfax
> Station home early the next morning — Wednesday,
> Feb. 26. The 15-year-old, who pestered his father
> to quit smoking and wear his safety belt, walked
> to nearby tracks and stepped between the rails as
> a commuter train approached.
>
> His death is one of six apparent suicides at
> Fairfax’s W.T. Woodson High School during the
> past three years, including another student found
> dead the next day. The toll has left the school
> community reeling and prompted an urgent question:
> Why would so many teens from a single suburban
> school take their lives?
>
> County officials say they do not believe the
> deaths are directly connected, and experts say
> that suicides among teens occurring in such a
> short span are extremely rare.
>
> Students have cried openly in Woodson’s hallways
> while teachers have tried to show resilience.
> Frustrated parents have asked the Woodson
> leadership and school system administrators for
> answers while wondering whether the school’s
> high-pressure, high-achieving culture could be
> playing a role.
>
> “A loss like this cuts a deep wound. It
> persists. It lingers. It’s very slow to heal,”
> said Steve Stuban, whose son attended Woodson and
> committed suicide in 2011. “I have no idea what
> causes this to occur with increased incidence. All
> I know is it seems it’s occurring more at
> Woodson than any other place in the county.”
>
> In interviews, parents of five of the six Woodson
> teens who apparently took their own lives said
> their search for answers is never-ending. The
> Washington Post generally does not identify youths
> suspected of killing themselves, but the families
> agreed to speak to The Post about their children
> to illustrate how teen suicide has profoundly
> affected their lives.
>
> Ivy Kilby’s 15-year-old son Cameron committed
> suicide on Aug. 4, 2012, a month before he was
> supposed to return to Woodson for his sophomore
> year. As a mother who has faced the grief that
> follows the death of a child, she said that
> parents should talk to their children about
> suicide and mental health before it’s too late.
>
> “I never had a conversation with my kids until
> that happened to us,” Ivy Kilby said. “I hope
> every parent has a conversation with their
> children to ask them how they are doing
> mentally.”
>
>
> A search for answers
>
>
> Jack Chen spent his final hours writing a note. He
> loved his family and friends. He had dreams of
> being a computer science professor and having four
> children. But at 15, he “couldn’t keep doing
> this.”
>
> “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,” Jack wrote. He
> ended with a simple: “Goodbye.”
>
> Jack’s death and the loss of five other students
> have reverberated within the community; more than
> 1,000 Woodson parents, teachers and administrators
> flooded into the school’s auditorium on a recent
> night trying to make sense of it all. The suicides
> have been especially baffling because many of the
> teens did not seem to exhibit the factors that
> would put them at risk. They had good grades,
> stable families and excelled at sports.
>
> Fairfax County School Board member Megan
> McLaughlin, whose Braddock district includes
> Woodson and whose two sons attend the school, said
> talking about teen suicide is no longer taboo, and
> the school has moved quickly to talk to students
> about depression and self-harm.
>
> “We absolutely have a responsibility to examine
> this as closely as possible to understand why this
> has continued to happen in one particular high
> school at this rate,” McLaughlin said. “It’s
> simply too high.”
>
> Many wonder if there is a common thread. A number
> of parents and students said they worry about the
> fierce competition for limited spots in the
> state’s prestigious public university system.