Posted on March 15, 2006
The transition from high school to college is difficult, but for some, the new pressures that college life generates may be too great to bear, and an alarming number of these students turn to suicide as an escape.
“Being away from home, away from their parents who have always been a support, leads some students to feel like they don’t have an outlet for all the new pressures they have to face,” Del. John Welch, R-21st District, said.
While there are no exact figures, JMU’s Counseling and Student Development Center Web site estimates that there are generally 7.5 suicides for every 100,000 enrolled college students in the United States. This brings the annual number of student suicides to 1,000. The site also gives indicators of suicide, including changes in academic performance such as skipping class and falling behind, withdrawal from friends and activities that were once enjoyed, engaging in reckless behavior with drug and alcohol abuse, and changes in personality.
In addition, according to the Suicide and Mental Health Association International’s Web site, suicide is the second biggest cause of death of college students.
Welch was chief co-patron of a new law in Virginia that directly addresses potentially suicidal college students. The law requires that all public universities develop and implement plans to educate universities on identifying and addressing the needs of students displaying suicidal behaviors. It also states that no student may be penalized solely for attempting suicide.
Welch created the bill after the son of a close friend committed suicide.
“After doing some research, I discovered an alarming number of college students are committing suicide,” Welch said. “A lot of the same pressures that exist in high school, from peers and society, exist in college, and these can build up to dangerous levels.”
“Applying these statistics to JMU would suggest that we could expect to lose one or two students each year to suicide,” said CSDC Director David Onestak. “I am very happy to report that, through the efforts of many caring people on campus, the projected number has not been the reality here at JMU.”
The CSDC has previously made efforts to advise the JMU community on this issue and already has programs designed to help students experiencing emotional crises. To further conform to the requirements of the new law, “the CSDC is currently working on a major suicide risk reduction initiative that we have entitled ‘JMU Cares,’” Onestak said. “JMU Cares” has several goals, all based around education and creating a network of people that will encourage suicidal students to get help.
Freshman Nick Sheehan got first-hand experience when a high school classmate committed suicide.
“He killed himself and everyone was shocked. He had a lot of friends and no one had thought that he would do something like that,” Sheehan said. “It really upset everyone who had gone to school with him.”
Junior Matt Alcide has worked in an out-of-state funeral home for more than three years and said that the biggest funerals are for young suicides.
“It seems to cause a lot of grief in a community because there is a sense that ‘he was one of ours and we couldn’t help him,’” Alcide said.
It is for this reason that Welch found it so important to work on the student suicide law.
“I don’t expect our institutions of higher learning to become mental health treatment centers, I don’t. But they need to be able to know how to spot these troubled students in the absence of their families,” Welch said. “A lot of society turns a blind eye to them and they deserve our help.”
