SHARED RESOLVE, GRIEF ON SUICIDES; Schools ramp up preventive services

GLOBE WEST 1 / NEEDHAM, WELLESLEY

The homemade poster hanging this week in the main corridor of Wellesley High School is part sympathy card, part sad, solidarity gesture.

Covered in signatures from Needham's class of 2007, it is the equivalent of a hug to grieving counterparts in Wellesley that says: "We're sorry for your loss. We know how you're feeling. We've been there."

Last week, a 17-year-old Wellesley High senior became the third member of the school's class of 2007 to die by suicide in the past three years.

"People wonder if it is something about the community. People worry about the stresses on kids. People struggle with finding a balance between not glorifying and not ignoring what happened," said Robert Evans, director of the Human Relations Service, a Wellesley community mental health clinic that offers counseling at the high school.

These are questions Needham also has been forced to confront. Between 2004 and 2006, four teenagers from the town took their own lives. Last June, town and school officials formed the 38-member Needham Coalition for Suicide Prevention, which is ramping up a campaign called "Out of the Darkness."

Educators at Needham High didn't want to stop there. To supplement the school's guidance staff, Riverside Community Care, a social services agency based in Dedham that works with dozens of area suburbs, was invited to help organize grief-counseling sessions with students, parents, and faculty.

About 50 Needham High students considered at-risk for depression receive weekly counseling services. A dozen more get Outward Bound-style leadership training paid for by a federal antiviolence program established after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado.

Social workers also have met with educators and parents at Needham High, many of whom felt guilty and confused about the youths' deaths.

Jim McCauley, a Riverside social worker and outpatient program director, said the sweeping effort is off to a great start, but has a long way to go.

"We need to stay vigilant," said McCauley, who also serves on Needham's suicide prevention coalition. "We're aggressively looking for ways to continue this next year."

The coalition plans eventually to help not just teenagers, but also men in their 40s and senior citizens - the two groups considered highest at risk for suicide, he said.

Nine months into the effort, training programs have been established for adults who work with children, a public information campaign has begun, and youths are learning coping skills, according to a status report the coalition was due to present to the town this week.

The suicides in Needham and Wellesley do not represent an epidemic, as some fear, said Dr. Larry Berkowitz, director of Riverside Outpatient Care in Wakefield.

"One is too many, of course," he said. "Any time we hear about kids not being safe, it scares the heck out of us."

Across the country, about 30,000 people commit suicide annually; about 5,000 of them are teenagers, according to statistics from the office of the US Surgeon General, which also reports that there are an estimated 23 attempts for every death by suicide.

Suicide almost always is prompted by multiple factors, Berkowitz said. Mental illness, substance abuse, physical abuse, sexuality issues, and bullying can make youths vulnerable to depression. And a humiliating or traumatic event, like getting dumped by a girlfriend, expelled from school, or in trouble with the law, he said, can ignite a major mood change in an already vulnerable teenager.

"No one commits suicide because of a single stressor," Berkowitz said. "And this crosses all economic spectrums." Berkowitz said he'd like to see suicide prevention - now often relegated to health class - part of mainstream academic curriculums. If teachers and students felt comfortable being open about the topic, he said, even an English class discussion of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" could turn into a thoughtful discussion on the choices made by the doomed young lovers.

Marlborough High School last month brought in Riverside counselors after a girl fell from an interior balcony in an incident that school officials there have refused to detail publicly.

"Suicides and crises reverberate across town boundaries," McCauley said.

The Needham program has drawn inquiries from Hopkinton, Lexington, Medfield, and Upton officials.

Communities will have to examine their identities to find their own approach, said George Johnson, director of student development for Needham's schools.

"The hardest part is to do it thoughtfully rather than just do it," Johnson said. "There was a lot of anxiety in the community, and people wanted us to respond right away with programs responding to grief. We had to take a step back and look at how we could prevent future instances of suicide, and do the research on what would make a difference and what would fit in with Needham."

A chief goal of the campaign is to educate people about the signs and symptoms of depression. Awareness posters are "plastered everywhere" in school, Johnson said. "It's a little `in their face,' but we wanted to be in their face."

The posters and a new flier created by the coalition may be adopted on the state level, said coalition member Nick Simmons-Stern, a Needham High junior and delegate to the state Department of Education's student advisory committee. He said that while Needham students know more about suicide today than a year ago, they are still skittish. "I think the shock of losing people is still there. Some people are still scared to talk about it."

The idea of reaching out to Wellesley after last week's suicide, Simmons-Stern said, was inspired by a poster Hopkinton High sent over to Needham after two local teenagers died in a car crash last fall.

Scores of Needham students signed the card for Wellesley, happy to substitute their longtime sports rivalry with a kind gesture.

Simmons-Stern said: "We just wanted to pass along our thoughts to them."

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com.