Midcoast reels from tragedy Cluster of deaths spurs concern for area youths

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ROCKPORT – In a week dedicated to giving thanks, many in the five-town community surrounding Camden Hills Regional High School are feeling pain.

Last weekend, a freshman from Lincolnville killed himself.

And it gets worse.

It was the second suicide of a Camden Hills student in a month.

Earlier this fall, a student at the high school drowned.

During the summer, two sisters – one who had just graduated, the other, a graduate from a year earlier – were killed in a car accident in Nevada.

Last spring, a student from Lincolnville killed himself.

And before that, a Rockland youth who had moved to Lincolnville committed suicide the day before he was to enroll at Camden Hills.

School and community leaders also noted Tuesday that a murder-suicide last winter affected the high school. A man took his own life after shooting his girlfriend in Camden. The woman was the daughter of the high school’s assistant principal.

Susan O’Halloran of the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program worries that the community – Camden, Rockport, Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville – is experiencing the contagious effects of suicide.

“It’s extremely unusual,” she said. “I know of no other school district that has experienced this.”

Four teen suicides in a year in a community of about 12,000 is unprecedented, she said. Normally, she said, one suicide might be expected in a decade from a comparable school community, she said.

Teachers gathered at the high school Tuesday morning and set aside the regular training sessions that had been scheduled in favor learning how to prevent another suicide. Educators are worried that students may identify with the suicide victims, or in some way be prompted to choose suicide as a means of dealing with pain. Instead, O’Halloran said, students must be shown that suicide is “a long-term solution to a short-term problem.”

Ben Dorr, a 17-year-old senior at Camden Hills, said he believes teachers would be available to assist troubled students, “but I don’t think the kids know it well enough.” He suggested that teachers repeatedly tell students that they are willing to listen and talk to them.

“I think kids are put under a lot of pressure in our community,” Dorr said. “People are successful and they want their kids to be successful.”

Saima Sidik, a sophomore at Camden Hills who lives in Lincolnville, described her mood as, “Enough is enough. Let’s stop this,” and put an end to the suicides.

She said if she couldn’t turn to her parents, “I have a few teachers I know I could talk to,” if she were contemplating suicide.

Maine ranks in the top 10 among states for its suicide rate, O’Halloran said. For 15 of the past 18 years, the suicide rate in the state has been above both the national average and the New England average, she said.

The national average is about 11 suicides per 100,000 in population. In Maine, there are about 15 suicides per 100,000 people. The youth suicide rate is 12.4 per 100,000 people, O’Halloran said. Nationally, four of every five suicides are men or boys.

O’Halloran described “suicide clusters” in relation to the recent events in the Camden-Rockport area.

The phenomenon was first observed in the 1700s when a spurned young lover took his life. Other young men dressed as he did and ended their lives in the same manner, she said.

The clusters are now known to follow a highly publicized suicide, O’Halloran said. After Marilyn Monroe killed herself, an unusually high percentage of blond women who identified with the actress took their lives, she said. Some struggling musicians committed suicide after rock star Kurt Cobain ended his life, she said.

Sidik agreed that suicide could be contagious.

“I think it’s definitely been put in people’s minds now,” she said. She remembers thinking, “Wow, anyone could do this. I could do this.”

Dorr echoed Sidik’s comments on the contagious nature of suicide.

“I think that one kind of disenfranchised student killing themselves gives kids the courage to do it – kids who are thinking about it,” he said.

Dorr said that when the person’s life is celebrated at a funeral for a suicide victim and people say, “Oh, what a great person he was,” students can be seduced into imagining such a scene after their own deaths.

“You’ve got to pull yourself back from those thoughts,” he said.

School Superintendent Pat Hopkins said representatives of the Center for Grieving Children will be on hand at the district’s middle school in Camden today, and will remain there after school. A drop-in pizza session with counselors for all students is scheduled for 5 p.m., and a session for parents at 6:30 p.m.

The district is also planning a “wellness day” sometime before Christmas break. The event is being put together by community members and will offer various seminars and clinics for students.

And a public forum is planned for 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4.

A celebration of the life of the most recent suicide victim is scheduled for noon today at the Rockport Opera House.

Suicide signs

While there are signs for those who choose suicide, they are hard to spot, Susan O’Halloran of the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program told teachers Tuesday.

“It happens in terrific families. It happens in dysfunctional families,” she said. “There is not a predictive list” of factors.

Typically, the person considering suicide will talk about it. It may start in a joking manner, but the words should be heeded, O’Halloran said.

“A ‘gesture’ is just as important as a threat, which is just as important as an attempt,” she said.

Educators should ask questions about the student’s pain, drawing them out. They should also ask about details of a suicide plan. If adults act to eliminate the means – such as getting a gun out of a house – a suicide often can be prevented, she said.

“We have to pry,” O’Halloran said. Adults should not hesitate to use the word “suicide,” she said, or ask directly, “Do you wish you were dead?”

O’Halloran went to an open house at the Lincolnville Central School on Monday night set up to allow community members to talk about the suicide. She told parents to ask their children to make a list of five adults they would share their thoughts with if they were considering suicide.

Anger is also a sign of impending suicide, she said.

“There’s almost always a big fight before” with a family member or friend.

Withdrawing from friends, changes in sleep patterns and neglecting appearance are also some of the signs, O’Halloran said.

O’Halloran said a school should treat a suicide just as it would a death by car accident or illness, giving students time to grieve. But teachers should point out that the victim made a bad choice in committing suicide.

“Don’t make a hero out of the victim,” she cautioned.