I watched Boston Public again tonight. I was, yet again, impressed with the scripting and acting. An especially good part was related to a teacher talking about suicide with students.
One of the teachers brought some of his students to the morgue to see a student who had just committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Many of the students' parents were mad at the school and the teacher for allowing this. Their rationale was that the mere mention of suicide puts it into the minds of students and makes them more likely to commit it.
The teacher very effectively dismissed this fallacy by informing the parents that suicide is already on the minds of students. The parents' fear of talking about it was the real problem. The teacher said that he brought the students to the morgue to overcome the stigma that suicide is glamorous or a better alternative to life. He showed them what suicide is really like. The scene ended with his powerful words: I only wish there was somewhere I could take them to show them what real parents are like.
Ouch.
I'm very impressed that this came up on primetime TV, especially with the truthfulness of the issues: people are scared to talk about suicide because they think talk is going to put the idea into a teenager's head. This particular episode also addressed the problem of a student having a hit list
filled with faculty and other students. Both issues were dealt with tastefully.
Back to the issue of suicide. I think part of the reason I found it so effective is because I find it truthful from my experiences in high school. I'll admit that I thought of committing suicide. Thankfully, I was blessed with enough sense to know that it wouldn't solve any problems, only really make things worse for all parties involved. I can't recall a single occasion when my parents talked to me about suicide. I know that my experiences aren't unique. The truth hurts, but hiding from it doesn't make it go away.
