Young Suicides

While travelling into work the other day I was listening to the Gerry Ryan Show. A lady came on air talking about how her young son had hung himself in sheer temper because she had taken him out of the pub. She was saying that she knew for a fact that he didn't mean to hang himself, that in his own mind he was thinking "that will show you mammy for embarrassing me in front of my friends" and in reality she maintained that he didn't actually realise in his own head the actual consequences of committing suicide. He didn't realise that he would never get to hear her say " Oh I'm so sorry for embarrassing you I'll never do it again" because he KILLED himself, there is no coming back, there are no more nights out with his friends , no more girlfriends , no more holidays, no more laughter. The point she was making was in relation to the funerals of the two young students who committed suicide recently. She feared that due to the massive publicity they got and the elaborate funerals they received with everyone saying such lovely things about them and thousands of people attending the funeral, their favourite songs being played and the school closing for the duration of the mass actually made hero's out of them especially to their peers. Does shutting school's and allowing students to have their day in mourning when a student commits suicide send out the right message. I don't think it does . The lady made the point that maybe if students weren't allowed to go to the funeral and had to go to class instead they might realise that there is nothing heroic about it and at the end of the day normal life still has to go on and the person who is gone is gone forever not just for the day. I totally agree with her, do these kids actually know, I mean really understand what suicide means? Do they understand when the funeral is over and their friends go back to school that they cant join them because they are gone forever, they ended the life they had now and any life they could have had. In my opinion instead of letting the children go to the funeral they should say a prayer for the deceased and continue on with their work so as not to glorify the act. I also think schools should be more pro active when it comes to teaching young kids what it actually means to take your own life , that it is not an answer and that there is no coming back from it. Possibly schools should introduce counselling services or put up websites that deal with the topic of depression or suicide such as suicidal.com. This may help when students feel like there is no one they can talk to. Either way we as a society need to act on this spree of young children taking their own lives and it is up to each and everyone of us to take an interest in our children and explain to them what suicide actually means for them.