Well that's pretty grim...

Hey all,

Just read an article form aol.com that explores the issue of teen suicide. Apparently four students from a high school in Palo Alto, Claifornia have all commited suicide within four months of one another in the same location, using the same method -jumping in front of an oncoming train. A fifth student tried to take his own life as well, but was saved at the last minute. These events have the writer of the article asking whether or not teen suicides are "contagious."

They even have a name for this kind of thing which is in and of itself kinda scary. The experts interviewed called them "suicide clusters" and these clusters are happening more and more frequently among US teens.

One expert in particular, Larry Berman - exec. director of the American Association of Suicidology (yes apparently there is such a thing) - raises an interesting point. He says while commiting suicide on the train tracks is not typical of teenagers, those who have done so only did so because of the role the media had in reporting such suicides. In other words, one teen did it so another attempted to copycat and so on. He says that the media needs to rework how they present topics such as teen suicides because "vulnerable kids will imitate behavior" and it's a "very fine line to walk: how to increase awareness without adding to the problem."