Suicide. When people hear about suicide nowadays its sad, yet not shocking. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in 15-19 year olds. I go to Farmington High School. If I had to describe my highschool in one word it’d be typical. You have certain cliques, “weird” kids, mean girls, etc. I’d say in the two years I’ve been here, I have seen some not so kind acts made by people. On the news you see story after story about someone who has committed suicide, as a result of bullying, but thats not what this is about. This is about the rates of kids my age all over the world committing suicide. I’m bringing awareness to this because regardless of possible reasonings, If people would just think before they spoke, or choose an act of kindness, these rates have a good chance of decreasing drastically.

Every year, according to the world health organization, approximately 800,000 people die fom suicide each year. If you do math, that’s about one death every 40 seconds. Every day about 125 Americans die by sucide. Suicide and/or suicide attempts can have serious emotional, physical, and economic impacts. More than 90% of people who attempt suicide survive. Things like this not only affect your overall health and well-being, but it affects others too. Your friends, loved ones, co-workers, and the community are all examples of who and what can be affected by suicide. They may feel shock, anger, guilt, symptoms of depression or anxiety, and may even experience thoughts of suicide themselves.

The suicide prevention movement was created in mid 1900’s when survivors of suicide loss saw the need to mobilize attention to prevent suicide in the nation. These groups “set out to establish a public and private partnership that would be responsible for promoting suicide prevention in the United States. This innovative public-private partnership jointly sponsored a national consensus conference on suicide prevention in Reno, Nevada, which developed a list of 81 recommendations.” Although suicide affects all ages, ethnicities, and genders, theres a higher rate in certain groups. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual have higher rates of suicidal thoughts comapred to their peers. Other Americans with higher than average rates of suicide are veterans, people who live in rural areas, and workers in certain industries and occupations like mining and construction.

Regardless of your beliefs, it is always important to be courteous of others. If you disagree with someone else’s beliefs or the way they live their life, keep it to yourself. In moments you may feel like it’s “cool” or “funny”, but a giggle out of your friends is not worth someone’s life. You never know what your students, teachers, friends, or even family are going through. Always be kind, it comes with a greater reward than the risk of being pointlessly rude.