Northwest+Expert+Advice

__ Question One: Had teen suicide ever affected you in any way in the work place? __ **Miss.** **Bradford****:** Not me personally, I have thankfully not had any situations with teen suicide. I have although been in situations where teens have attempted suicide by cutting themselves or taking pills but they were not successful in their attempts. These students when they come back, we set them up with counseling and appropriate classroom settings to accommodate them. **Officer Demeropolis:** Yes, unfortunately it has. I have seen several kids take their lives from ways like hangings, shootings, crashing their cars at excessive speeds and even with carbon monoxide. It is a sobering hard thing to see. I have seen kids take their lives because of being afraid of their parents discipline and even things like having a hard time at home. **Mrs. Disbro:** No, fortunately teen suicide has not ever affected me in the work place. __ Question Two: Statistics say that males are proven to commit suicide over females. What do you feel about this statement? __ **Miss.** **Bradford****:** Honestly I'm not surprised. I have never heard that before but, females do use friends and family as support systems to talk to because they are comfortable talking about their feelings. But with males, they don't like talking about their emotions. They keep things bottles up and are not comfortable talking to anyone. **Officer Demeropolis:** I can’t argue with the statistics but from my view point it has been pretty even, about 50/50. I have noticed that females, when they attempt suicide they are neat with it, they don’t try and hurt themselves. They might be looking for attention or help and don’t actually want to hurt themselves. But with males, they commit suicide and are messy. It is very obvious that they intended to kill themselves. **Mrs. Disbro:** I can see how that would play out. It is proven that males are more successful for whatever reason. But also you can see that females attempt suicide a lot more. I think that every case should be taken seriously even if it is thought to be done for attention. __ Question Three: For every one teen that commits suicide, out of ten people how many do you think have attempted suicide? (Answer is three out of ten) __ **Miss.** **Bradford****:** I am not sure I am going to guess five. ( I tell her that the answer is three) Wow, I am very surprised by that... Wow. **Officer Demeropolis:** I don’t know. Probably more that I'd like to know. People who attempt suicide are normally crying out for help. I can’t remember anyone in my 34 years who have attempted suicide and after getting help went back and committed suicide. All suicides I've dealt with are kids who don’t see that it is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. **Mrs. Disbro:** I am not sure off the top of my head; I would have to look it up. __ Question Four: What plan do you believe schools should have to reduce teen suicides or address them? __ **Miss.** **Bradford****:** With this school in particular, we have a student support system. Not a lot of people know about it. Northwest High Schools point person is Tiffany Hosley and she is one of five adults that make up this team. I think we could utilize this team. We defiantly should educate teens. More and more teens are becoming depressed and they don’t know how to come to adults and speak out. Another way is through FMP, guest speakers and most important just education. Unfortunately we bring these things up to late so we should catch it before it happens. **Officer Demeropolis:** There needs to be awareness. No student groups. I want teens to know that they can come in and talk to myself and Officer Bradley. We've brought in parents for one on ones. Counselors, administrators and us officers can try and fix problems as best we can. The doors are open and we want people to know that. No one wants to see someone take their life. **Mrs. Disbro:** I think that educating people and talking about it is what we need to do. Researchers have proven that talking about things helps. But often time’s people think that talking about these things would give people ideas to do it. Teens need to be aware that their brains aren’t fully devolved until the age of twenty five so sometimes they don't look at the long term effects of committing suicide. It affects not only them but everyone around them. __ Question Five: Do you believe the media has any role in teen suicides? __ **Miss.** **Bradford****:** I think the media will always have a role in what happens. The media doesn’t use teen suicides to their advantage. They could do reports on how to prevent it when it happens or do after school specials but instead they only say what happens and not how to solve the problem. **Officer Demeropolis:** No, not in our community. If there is a teen suicide, they normally call and ask what happened and when they find out it is a teenager or a kid, they try to not broadcast that information because it is so horrible. **Mrs. Disbro:** Yes, Kids are drawn into movies, television and music, so they could get the ideas from there. But Dr. Odell Owns says there are a lot more suicides in Hamilton County and the news reporters just don’t report them to the public. Maybe if they did an awareness campaign it would help. ||
 * I conducted three interviews with three different Northwest Experts. I had chosen Miss. Elizabeth Bradford for a principal stand point; Officer Andrew Demerolplis from a Police officer stand point and, Mrs. Michelle Disbro as a physiology stand point. All three experts have provided me with very useful information that teens should know about suicide and the effects it has on everyone.