A letter-writing campaign by the New Richmond (Wis.) Area Community Foundation showed last week that many adults harbor great optimism for the lives of middle school students in their communities, the New Richmond News reports.
About 400 letters were needed in the campaign, the brainchild of Gina Knutson, Carol Jones, Patty Schachtner, Gail Buell, and Randy Calleja, who saw it as a natural outreach of their foundation. Letter writers—adults in New Richmond—were matched to students based on an initial survey the area’s eighth graders filled out. Then, the adults went to work writing, and the letters were distributed to students in their homerooms last week.
Doug Hatch, one middle school principal, used the letters received by students at his school to remind them that many adults care about the lives of middle school students, despite what students might sometimes think about those adults: “They understand that you’re the future of New Richmond, you’re the future of this country,” the paper quoted him as saying. “Use this as the positive that it is to finish the school year on a good note. Think about what kind of legacy you want to leave here.”
One of the foundation’s goals for the project was to address the suicide rate among US teenagers. Letting eighth graders know adults care is a big step, since these students will next year make the transition to high school, which, the organizers said, could bring on anxiety.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. About 4,600 young people take their own lives each year in the US. The top three suicide methods used by young people are firearm (45%), suffocation (40%), and poisoning (8%).
Considering only children under 20, the suicide rate increased significantly between 2010 and 2011, according to preliminary figures available from the CDC, which were published in February in an article in the medical journal Pediatrics, here. In 2010, about 2.4 children under 20, out of every 100,000, committed suicide, while the rate for 2011 went up to 2.6 per 100,000.
For some subgroups, the risk is even greater. A study published just last week in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, here, found that Latina adolescents experience depression and suicidal thoughts in a disproportionate manner compared to their non-Latina counterparts. The study found that bullying rates were also higher: 23 percent of Latina girls reported being victimized by bullying at school, and 26 percent reported being victimized by cyberbullies.
“Girls who have been bullied were 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide compared to girls who have not been victims,” the study’s authors concluded. “However, being a bully increased likelihood of suicide ideation (1.5 times) and suicide plan (1.4 times) compared to not being a bully. There is a continued need to prevent depressive symptoms and suicide among Latina girls and to further investigate the effects of bullying.”
The article in the New Richmond News said at least one student was touched by the letter she received, reporting on its highly personal quality. “Middle school is usually not that important in the eyes of people,” the paper quoted her as saying.
But it’s at this critical age that the eyes of people need to pay more attention. For example, Naperville social studies teacher Josh Stumpenhorst, Illinois’s 2011 Teacher of the Year, published on his blog yesterday a handwritten essay by one of his sixth-grade students. It read, in part, “I know this issue [bullying] will never be solved, but I think that stopping it will be worth a go!”
Our recent review of the Jason Bateman movie Disconnect essentially tells the same story of hopelessness with respect to bullying. Yet bullying continues to increase the likelihood of childhood suicide, not only for the victim but for the bully as well, and I have to second the words of Mr Stumpenhorst’s student: trying to stop it will be worth a go.
The New Richmond Area Community Foundation and its understanding and caring staff have put their two cents in by sending 400 letters to eighth graders in their community. It’s worth a go elsewhere. Talk to your local middle school principal, find some adults who can inspire kids, and get writing.
