It's been a rough day. I stayed up until 6:30 this morning writing a paper. I figured I could get a few hours of sleep before class, so I lay down. And then start getting urgent texts from both my sister and my boyfriend saying "They just found a dead body on the tennis courts." WHAT!!!! Then I find out they are on lock-down until the school is sure that it's safe in the area. They ended up having to stay 2 hours later than they were supposed to.
I decide to be the smart one and look online.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081021/NEWS02/81021...
For those that don't feel like reading the whole article...an 11th grader shot himself this morning on the tennis courts outside of the school. They haven't released a name so I don't know if I knew the kid or not. I'm pretty torn up by the whole thing.
I think they may have actually taken the comments off the article, they should have. That's what hurt me the most. Reading some of the insensitive and hurtful stuff that people wrote made me cry. Someone wrote in and was talking about how it's the school's fault that this happened and saying that Ben Davis is the only place suicide happens because no one cares about the kids. NOT TRUE!!! How can you be ignorant enough to say something like that? For one the school system she was talking about her kids going to, not the best. For two, the boy walked to school and then shot himself he could have walked anywhere and done that, how the hell is that the school's fault????? I mean people let's get real, this is a tragedy. As a community everyone should be banding together to support this boy's friends and family and the students and staff at the school...not pointing fingers.
The other thing that really really hurts me is where it happened. I've gotten a bunch of texts from freshmen saying they saw it happen. The way the school is set up the freshmen center partially faces the tennis courts. I can't imagine what that would do to you psychologically.
This just breaks my heart. It's by no means the first suicide the school has seen, there have been a few in the last few years. My heart goes out to the boy's family and friends. I just wish that people would be more sensitive.
How typical it is for the media and others to focus on fringe details rather than focusing on the real story: This is a tragedy.
A sad day.
"Goodness is the only investment that never fails."
H.D.Thoreau http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/sahara
That is such a sad story.
The fact that people are so insensitive that they would ignore the fact that an obviously very bothered kid committed suicide... And instead make disparaging comments about the school? I really think that's...disgusting. But I really guess that's what the world has come to.
When I went to the article I don't believe I saw any comments. It would be a good thing too, knowing now what you said those comments had contained. This Ben Davis school is obviously not the only one to have such a tragedy occur. It's happening in high schools all over. Whether or not this rate is increasing would be a whole nother matter entirely, though that's not the issue here too.
I find some hope in that at the end of the article, it's mentioned that counselors are available for distraught students to speak with.
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This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
Yeah that's why I had said I thought they'd deleted the comments. There were 7 pages of them.
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All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes.
Holy Schnikes that's a lot of comments! If this were a discussion of public interest, it would be a nice fact to show that people do speak out. However in this case some of the speaking out has such negative connotations that it's not helping anyone.
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This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
Hey all, just wanted to update...I did know the boy.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081022/LOCAL1804/81...
new article
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All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes.
I'm sorry it happened at all, and more sorry that it was someone you know. My cousin committed suicide a few years ago. It tore his friends and classmates up. Seeing all those broken kids at his funeral was what made me cry hardest.
This is off-topic and horribly inappropriate, given the subject, but if I had not moved out of Indianapolis at the age of two, I'd have gone to Ben Davis! My mom went to Broad Ripple.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It's horrible that he chose to kill himself, but he's gone now. Let the kid rest in peace
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"Put your best foot forward, just watch what you step in..."