28 teenagers or young adults commit suicide in the US every week, which is a rate that has tripled in the past 60 years. The problems that these individuals suffer from are not recognized nor addressed in their everyday lives, so life quickly becomes tricky for them. Many of them juggle too many things at once, which becomes stressful for them. Most try to keep a good face, so classmates do not suspect anything. Before long it is too late. But would these suicides be preventable if the issues were addressed? Are these teens crying out for help?
The documentary takes place at Hamilton High School in Cincinnati, US. Four students have committed suicide at this particular school within a few years. None of the suicides have an apparent connection, but all the victims had hanged themselves. The documentary focuses on these blue-collar working families and tries to find an explanation as to why these suicides occur - and how they can be prevented.
The Views Expressed in the Documentary
The views expressed in this particular documentary focus on the teen’s personal family relationships and the individual’s role in the school’s cliques. The documentary suggests that the urge for committing suicide stems from problems that occur in the home, a lack of parental love, abandoned children, alcoholism and violence in the home. Broken homes and families requiring social assistance are also considered targets for suicide.
When relationships fall apart, whether between teens or child and parent, the teens and young adults can experience depression and dark thoughts. They tend to experience anger much faster than adults, as one psychologist in the documentary claims, “they do not know how to count to 10. They barely make it to 3”. The school is a natural target for violence, because it is their ground zero. This is where they experience the meanest things and experience a loss of individual control. Taking extreme actions, such as school shootings, reaffirms them of their individual control and control over others. Unfortunately, attention is only paid to suffering teens when major events like that occur. When a lone suicide happens, less attention is paid.
This documentary believes that behind every troubled child there is a troubled child-parent relationship. It places most of the responsibilities on the parents, stating that by establishing a good bond between parent and child at the age 6 compared to the age of 16 when other social pressures start lurking, can be an early intervention to prevent anger, mental illness and darker thoughts before they appear.
The Initiatives Taken at Hamilton High to Prevent Suicide
The counsellors at Hamilton High constructed a questionnaire (with parental consent) to find out what their students are thinking – something they call Teen Screen. It reveals that 1/14 had considered suicide and that 90% of parents were unaware of their teens’ considerations.
Based on this new information, the school put into place the STEPS program – a program to help teens communicate about their problems and find comfort in each other as classmates. It is to let them know that they are not going through their problems alone and the program is a suicide prevention program for both students and parents. The documentary suggests that the primary solution for preventing suicide is reaching out and asking “what is on your mind”.
Effectiveness of Documentary
This documentary does an excellent job introducing the preventive measures that Hamilton High has put in place, such as the STEPS programs and their blue ‘helping hand’ initiative. It also gives a fair attempt to answer some of the questions that linger around the issue of suicide. However, the reasoning behind these claims is not supported by the medical and scientific knowledge of suicide, such as mental illnesses and bipolar personalities.
The documentary falls short because it simply blames poor family bonds and lack of love as being the primary reason for suicide. To support this claim, a single interview with a stressed college student named Stacy is used. This is not to say that Stacy’s stress and obsession with suicide is not truly haunting and depressing. It does however suggest that the lack of structure from her family, stress at school and her own lack of rules led to thoughts of suicide – and that these factors are behind every suicidal thought in every teenager or college student.
It does not go into depth about mental illnesses or any other reasons behind suicidal thoughts. It simply concludes that suicides can be prevented if the cry for help is addressed. Although the initiative taken by the high school in Cincinnati is definitely a great one, the documentary falls flat when trying to answer the ever-lingering questions surrounding the act of suicide and why students would choose to take their own lives.
- Studio: THIRTEEN/PBS
- Rating: Not Rated
- Running Time: 57 Minutes
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