…is October.
I do not have all the facts of this next story. It is a sobering story both tragic and a bit of a mystery. Its a tragedy because one of our students in the Duluth Schools took his life this September. It is a mystery because, apparently the School District and the Duluth Police are investigating the details and one or the other have requested the grieving family to make no statements. It would be easy for me to criticize the District and it has apparently had the affect of angering the family.
I first heard about the death a month ago at our church’s worship service. A boy had taken his life and acquaintances asked for prayers for the family. It was a surprise to me as I’d heard no news of the death in the local press. This could have been for good reason. There are often copy cat suicides, in fact, a few years ago three Duluth students took their lives in quick succession in something of a domino effect.
I’m not sure how I divined that the death was a suicide but at the Health Forum I made some light of two weeks ago I did mention that a suicide had taken place in one of our schools. I couldn’t say that overcrowded classrooms were to blame but I did point out that under the crowded situation in our schools it would be much easier for a troubled child to be overlooked by teachers swimming in students.
Then the student’ Aunt wrote a letter published last week by the Reader Weekly. I read it at the time and wondered at the unusual venue for the letter. It wasn’t in the paper of record for Duluth, the Tribune. It was in the alternative publication. I don’t have a copy of the letter at hand but I received an email from a friend of the family who wrote that the powers that be were trying to hush up the story. This may not be an unreasonable request. An investigation is underway and it would be premature to draw conclusions. Evidently the boy wrote a suicide note pointing the blame at another student who was characterized as a bully. The police seized the letter and no more has been heard from anyone about the course of the investigation. This has left a sour taste with the boy’s family.
All I know is that a child has died and the general public is unaware of this. It is ironic that it should have happened days before Bullying Awareness Prevention Month.
