Re: TR 6/4 Big Show Synopsis



Dave Sikula wrote:
I'll say it was a funeral for a very talented 17 year old girl and
leave it at that.

"Brady" wrote...
Sorry to hear that, Dave.
One doesn't need the details to know that it's a tragedy.

All kidding aside...after reading what Dave wrote, I knew exactly the
person that she was...the story has been all over the news in the Bay Area &
even the Sacramento media has reported it...a double and almost triple
tradgedy.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/04/MNER180551.DTL

Tragedy strikes twice at Palo Alto school


(06-03) 21:03 PDT PALO ALTO, CALIF. -- After Gunn High School student
Jean-Paul Blanchard took his life by stepping in front of a Caltrain last
month, Palo Alto school administrators redoubled their efforts to reach out
to students battling feelings of hopelessness, depression or despair.

But somehow that effort didn't reach Sonya Raymakers.

On Tuesday night, the Gunn High senior, a talented costume designer who was
bound for New York University, stood on the tracks at East Meadow Drive in
almost the same location as Blanchard and was killed by a northbound
Caltrain. An investigation into Raymakers' death is continuing, but
authorities believe her death was intentional.

Raymakers and Blanchard, both 17, didn't know each other, and there is no
evidence that the suspected suicides are related. But the similarities -
same high school, same age, same terrible cause of death and same location -
have Palo Alto parents, students and officials frustrated and worried.

"This is very scary on many levels," said Lisa Kelly, the mother of a Gunn
senior, Rivka Kelly, who was a friend of Raymakers.

After Blanchard's death May 5, she said, she spoke to her children and
"asked them to talk to us, to tell us if anything was on their minds or if
any of their friends were having trouble."

School officials said they have been doing the same thing.

ou don't know why'
"We're flooding our schools and the community with resources and options and
asking the students to speak up and speak out," said district Assistant
Superintendent Scott Laurence. "You don't know why and you don't know if
there was something we could have done."

After Blanchard's death, Adolescent Counseling Services of Palo Alto
organized two community forums - one for tonight and another June 18 - to
address teen suicide bluntly and directly.

"It's time for us to no longer package things to look good and not be
scary," said the organization's executive director, Philippe Rey. "We're
calling it what it is."

On a day when Gunn High students should have been signing yearbooks,
attending the senior barbecue and preparing for finals next week, many
gathered instead at the Little Theater to mourn Raymakers.

They described her as a "theater geek" who loved designing costumes and as
someone who enjoyed creative writing, riding her bike and playing the piano
and viola. Above all, they had no idea why she would take her own life.

"She was a very happy and very involved person," said Shaina Davis, 17, a
senior.

Much of that involvement centered on the theater program, where Raymakers
specialized in costuming but seemed to know a little bit about everything.

"In the chaos of the theater, she was the one rock," said Ben Gardiner, 17,
a senior.

Raymakers was planning to study costume design in the fall at New York
University, continuing her love of dressing people up - and getting dressed
up herself.

"She was so better-dressed than everyone," said Gardiner.

"And she'd tell everyone else how to dress," added Rivka Kelly, who said
Raymakers had sent out a memo instructing her male classmates on the proper
way to dress for the prom.

etter from principal
Students were notified of the school's second apparent suicide in a month
during first-period classes Wednesday, when teachers read a letter from
principal Noreen Likins. School district officials were at the high school
with a team of counselors.

At the railroad tracks at East Meadow Drive, a chain link fence held a
month-old memorial to Blanchard - two plastic-covered poems and 10 bouquets
of dried-out flowers. At noon, Caroline Kent, 18, a senior, walked up and
placed a single, hand-picked white flower in the fence for Raymakers.

"We were really good friends," Kent said. "I knew her since first grade."

Kent said was at a loss to explain what happened. "Usually, it's the people
that seem the happiest that have the problems," she said. "They bottle them
up."

As the community struggles with the deaths, Rey said he wants to take the
word "suicide" off everyone's taboo topic list.

"I think right now everybody is all in shock because it's one after
another," he said. "It's one more wake-up call for us as a community for us
to realize what is going on with our kids, and especially our teens."

reventing teenage suicide
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds. The
rate in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, was 7.3
suicides for every 100,000 young people.

Risk factors


-- Previous suicide attempts

-- Family history of suicide

-- History of depression or other mental illness

-- Alcohol or drug abuse

-- Stressful life event or loss

-- Easy access to lethal methods

-- Exposure to the suicidal behavior of others

-- Incarceration

Signs to look for


-- A precipitating event, including one that is particularly distressing,
such as the loss of a loved one

-- Desperation, rage, psychic pain or inner tension, anxiety, guilt,
hopelessness, acute sense of abandonment

-- Changes in behavior, including direct or indirect references to suicide
or death

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention


ommunity forums
Adolescent Counseling Services of Palo Alto is holding two meetings to
address teen suicide:

-- Tonight: 7 to 9 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo
Alto

-- June 18: 7 to 9 p.m., Menlo Park City Council Chambers, 701 Laurel St.,
Menlo Park

Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee contributed to this report. E-mail the
writers at mcabanatuan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and jtucker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/04/MNER180551.DTL



************************



Then just yesterday....

Passer-by, mom halt third Palo Alto suicide


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/05/BAG8181L4M.DTL&tsp=1



(06-05) 13:57 PDT PALO ALTO --

A passing motorist helped the mother of a Palo Alto high school student keep
the boy from committing suicide on the Caltrain tracks at the same crossing
where two fellow students killed themselves in the past month, police said
today as they stepped up patrols in the area.

The 17-year-old boy, a student at Gunn High School, apparently walked to the
East Meadow Drive crossing at about 7:45 p.m. Thursday and was contemplating
suicide when he his mother came on the scene, police Agent Dan Ryan said.
The motorist saw the mother pleading with her son and stopped to help, as
did a Palo Alto police officer, Ryan said.

Police called Caltrain dispatchers, and an approaching northbound train was
stopped in Mountain View, Ryan said.

The boy was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

The apparent attempted suicide happened as community leaders, teachers and
parents were attending a community forum Thursday night in the wake of the
suicides of two other 17-year-old Gunn students.

On Tuesday night, senior Sonya Raymakers, who was bound for New York
University to study costume design in the fall, stood on the tracks and was
killed by a Caltrain.

On May 5, a junior at Gunn, Jean-Paul Blanchard, ended his life at the same
crossing.

Panelists at the forum at Cubberley Auditorium discussed how teen suicides
can often occur in clusters, with "people who are feeling low already are
more inclined once they see it done," Ryan said.

Police can't be present at all train crossings all the time, but Ryan said
Palo Alto and Caltrain transit police officers are stepping up patrols over
the next few days.

"We're trying to stop this cluster," Ryan said. "We have had two this month,
and we don't want any more.

"My words of wisdom would be for anyone who is feeling particularly
depressed or sad or feeling that this might be an option to them, to at
least reach out and talk to another person," Ryan said.

Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said authorities have contacted school
officials about the possibility of conducting rail-safety presentations in
the fall.

Scott Laurence, a Palo Alto Unified School District assistant
superintendent, said that although no plans had been finalized, "we're
trying to work collaboratively with everyone in the community. If Caltrain
is reaching out to us, we're going to accept as much help as we can possibly
get."

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/05/BAG8181L4M.DTL


--


Alan


.

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