One of the happiest moments of 2009 for me personally was when I found out I received a fellowship from the California Endowment to produce a video series on teen suicide.
Although teen suicide attempts have declined gradually since the 1990s, death by suicide has risen 8 percent among teenagers, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, it’s the third leading cause of death for teens between the ages of 15 and 19. While each suicide is a unique story, there is a common thread: More than 90 percent of teens who kill themselves show signs of major depression or another mental illness in the year prior to their deaths.
Although teen suicide attempts have declined gradually since the 1990s, death by suicide has risen 8 percent among teenagers, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, it’s the third leading cause of death for teens between the ages of 15 and 19. While each suicide is a unique story, there is a common thread: More than 90 percent of teens who kill themselves show signs of major depression or another mental illness in the year prior to their deaths.
In the space of eight months, five teenagers committed suicides by throwing themselves in front of trains in the California town of Palo Alto.
