4 Teen Suicides in a high school: Is Bullying to Blame?

I graduated Mentor High School the last year, and I don't ever remember to bully on the grandiose scale. I had a really real experience there, and the caring, helpful school staff and all teachers of the school were positively a big part of the main reason I loved it so much.


No high school student ought to ever be in a casket rather than in a cap and robe. "1 Ohio high school, four bullied teens departed by own hand" was the latest headline of an Associated Press article on a cluster of high school student suicides happening just over a half and two year period in the "pleasant beachfront community" of Mentor, Ohio.


According to news reports, there seems to be an epidemic of bullying in the country, fueling a spate of suicides. But the contrast is stark in that Cleveland suburb: Mentor was voted one of the "100 Best Places to Live" this year by CNN and Money Magazine, and Mentor High School is seemingly steeped in a "culture of mean" with apparently lethal consequences.


The death of any teenager is a tragic event. The shock, confusion, and grief that follow can contribute to constructive growth or can result in debilitating resentment and an unresolved search for blame. There are two fundamental errors in thinking that can emerge from this situation: The first is that Mentor High School is a uniquely harsh and intolerant hotbed of hate, and the second is that bullying is the fundamental contributor to suicide.


Mentor High had impactful teachers, advanced and varied educational courses, a range of successful athletics (not that I was ever involved with given my near total lack of sports abilities), and excellent arts programs (that I was involved with despite my near total lack of musical abilities). It's a very large school - about 3,000 students for three grades - so there was always one clique or another to fit into.


Of course, I don't want to sound like I look back through a gauzy sentimental lens. As I mentioned in a graduation speech, getting through it wasn't all that easy. Personally, I was happy in some ways and troubled in other people. Kids could be quite cruel: there were frequent fights and harsh bullying (and like most people, I'd be an outright liar if I didn't admit that I had lobbed some name-calling and gossip, too). Like John Ciardi once said: "You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone."


However, I believe that Mentor High School and its students are more similar to than different from most other high schools and their students across the country. Maybe something has changed drastically in the past ten years (I don't know any of the people or families from the AP story), but I highly doubt it.



Bullying is a terrible thing and appropriate steps should be taken to stop it from occurring and to fully punish those responsible. I also know that there is a strong and destructive tide of religious, political, and homophobic intolerance in this country that must be confronted. At the same time, bullying is unfortunately pervasive. Look deep enough into anyone's history and you'll find they've almost certainly been bullied in one way or another at some point in their lives, and you'll also find that they've probably done some bullying themselves. Adolescents in particular can be cruel, aggressive, and destructive, but chalking up bullying as the fundamental contributor to suicide is a dangerously facile explanation.



The United States suicide rate is just over 10 suicides per 100,001 people each year, with adolescents at high risk. But although the suicide rate in this country has increased in recent years and adolescent, the increase comes more from middle-aged white men and women than adolescents. There are a number of known factors which increase suicide risk.


Suicides often occur in clusters. There is an increased risk in those with a family history of suicide or in proximity to a recent suicide. For this reason, the media has historically been reluctant to report on cases of suicide. Meredith Rezak talked of suicide shortly after her friend Eric shot himself and she committed suicide in the same method only three weeks later. A year after Meredith's death, her older brother also shot and killed himself. Her second brother also died of a drug overdose not long after.


Firearms in the household are also a major risk factor. Males are almost 30% more likely than females to use them as lethal means, and adolescents are also much more likely to use firearms as seen in two of the four Ohio cases.


Social isolation is a significant contributor as are family or personal history of mental illness, physical/sexual abuse, and substance use. Lack of social support exacerbates almost every form of physical and mental illness. Two of the students had actually withdrawn from high school to enroll in online programs a short-time before their deaths, and as another student noted, one of the victims struggled because "she didn't fit in" and had serious issues at home that were unrelated to school.


Perhaps even more than depression, the presence of emotional dysregulation is highly associated with suicide attempts and deaths. Emotion dysregulation refers to problems with intense emotional experiencing, difficulties thinking clearly in emotional situations, interpersonal desperation, and impulsive behaviors. In extreme instances, these problems are often diagnostically labeled as Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and even Attention Deficit Disorder. Individuals will often describe these experiences as having emotions which are overwhelming and which spiral out of control. When they feel bad, they feel really bad, and even when they feel good they can feel really good.

Emotionally dysregulated people can be highly entertaining, humorous, class clowns with a flair for the dramatic. In these strong emotional states, they have trouble focusing or thinking rationally. When feeling bad, they can't ever remember feeling good and imagine they may never feel good again. They have difficulty focusing, remembering, and sometimes struggle to keep a clear topic when having a conversation or telling a story.


Feeling dysregulation often shows up as clingy behaviors or perhaps a despairing necessity for societal and romantic relationships. A regularly expressed thought is the sensation that a good relationship will solve all of their problems, and rejection or interpersonal conflicts often leads to intense emotional distress. These persons have difficulty forming a coherent identity: they don't seem to be sure who they are as people, what they need out of life, or how they fit in with other people. They might be drawn to excessive communities with strong belief systems or they may idealize charismatic other people. Lastly, they have a tendency in making hasty, impetuous, and poor conclusions.


In my opinion, I feel like the suing families are only attempting to get as much bad press as possible so our college will resolve, but that's never likely to happen. Mr. Spicia, our principal, is caring and is very upset with what's going on. Yesterday, we had a college-wide meeting that boosted school morale. As much as lots of people hate to hear it, we're not to blame, no less than not our employees and programs. Within 2,990 students, there's going to be one that is not the nicest, but it can't be the primary factor in the suicides.


Copyright by Lucy, a beautiful girl who likes collecting things, shopping online and playing computer, has a coach factory outlet and coach outlet store with lots of fashion things.