For the small town of Vincent, the grieving is like a cut that never seems to get better. Just as the area begins to recover from the suicide of one student, another takes his life.
The suicides began earlier this year when a 17-year-old boy used a deer rifle to kill himself. Several weeks later, one of his friends also shot himself.
Several weeks ago, a third teenage boy in Vincent also killed himself, this time using an extension cord to hang himself from a tree in his front yard.
Alabama is not alone. Five students committed suicide in less than a year in Michigan in 1997.
Rod Marshall, director of counseling with Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes, said the most documented incident of copycat suicides occurred in a Dallas suburb in the late 1970s when 19 youth from one school took their own lives.
Once a teenager has committed suicide, Marshall said, a great deal of attention is usually given to his or her life. Adults and peers no longer focus on the youth’s shortcomings, focusing instead on what a “good person” the deceased was.
Dying for attention
He believes the attention given suicide victims is the reason given suicide victims is the reason many of their peers follow them in also taking their lives.
“For them to have their worth affirmed, one strategy to do that is to (also) commit suicide,” he said.
He adds that adolescents’ failure to grasp the reality of death means most are not cognizant they will never hear the praise showered on them. “They probably think they’re going to hear it,” Marshall said.
But why would even one teen consider taking his or her life?
Adolescents often become overwhelmed by problems because of what Marshall said is a “personal fable” that prevents them from realizing their struggles and heartaches are no different from those of other teenagers.
Marshall also points to teenagers’ perception that everything they do has an audience- from the clothes they wear to the friends with which they associate. In the case of suicide, he said, the act provides an exciting exit from life.
“It’s a dramatic ending to a challenging scene,” Marshall said.
For parents and psychologists, copycat incidents raise concern of more teenage suicides.
“There is a major concern in the community that this is going to increase,” said Lon Cullen, pastor of First Baptist Church, Vincent.
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