Teachable Moment
The story of the young man who committed suicide viewable on his webcam.
For a 19-year-old community college student in Pembroke Pines, Fla., the message boards on BodyBuilding.com
were a place to post messages, at least 2,300 of them, including more
than one about his suicidal impulses. In a post last year, he wrote
that online forums had “become like a family to me.”
Abraham Biggs
"I know its kinda sad," the
student, Abraham Biggs,
wrote in parenthesis, adding that he posted
about his
"troubles and doubts" online because he did not
want to talk
to anyone about them in person.
Last Wednesday, when Mr. Biggs
posted a suicide
note and listed the drug cocktail he intended to
consume, the Web site hardly acted like a family.
The Bystander effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect.
The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon
in which individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency
situation when other people are present. The probability of
help is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders.
Make sure your students know absolutely what to do if they think that
someone is suicidal. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ are the best folks to recommend.
AND they have profiles on MySpace and Facebook.
Bottom line: Make sure your students know exactly what they can do if they
see a situation emerging when someone is threatening suicide.
--
The young man is the son of a friend of mine in our math department.
He also worked in our Learning Resources Center. The campus community,
as you can imagine, is stunned. Many students, in particular students
on our newspaper, wanted to know what they can do or where they can
send someone if he or she expresses suicidal thoughts. The truth is, we
don't really do counseling at the college. It is mostly of an academic
nature, if at all. When students seem to be functioning all right in class
or at work, we tend to let it go at that. It will be a teachable moment
in my classes.
Pat
Broward College