Student Commits Suicide in Front of 150 Classmates in AL

Friday, March 7, 2008

Student Commits Suicide in Front of 150 Classmates in AL

Suicide... desperation or an act of violence?

Thursday, in an Alabama high school gym packed with kids, 18-year-old student Jajuan Ondre Holmes fired a gun into the air then aimed it at his head and pulled the trigger.

Holmes died instantly while traumatizing the 150 plus kids who witnessed Holmes' final act.

Desperation, rage or both?

According to WKRG, Holmes had been suspended from the school the day before. The reason given, Holmes had used a "profanity." Holmes had been arrested last month in connection to two fast food and one convenience store robberies.

What's puzzling is that someone contacted Mobile police the night before, informing the police that Holmes had a gun and that Holmes intended to "harm himself."

The next day Holmes went back to his school and ended his life before 150 of his classmates.

While most would consider Holmes' act a cry for help there may be another perspective, that Holmes' self-inflicted death, brought about by his own hand in a public venue filled with classmates, was an act of violence and rage directed at the other students.

The CDC released a study in 2001 which shows a correlation between violence and suicide:

Although suicide commonly is associated with anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal, research suggests a link between violent behaviors directed at oneself (i.e., suicidal behaviors) and violent behaviors directed at others among adolescents (2--6). Certain students who engage in extreme forms of violence, such as school shootings, exhibit suicidal ideation or behavior before or during the attack (2,3). However, suicidal behavior also might be associated with involvement in less extreme forms of violent behaviors, such as physical fighting, which might be a risk factor for more severe forms of violence (3).

We found two other incidents of students committing suicide at their schools, one in Pennsylvania in December of 2006, another in Texas in March of 2007.

Texas student commits suicide in school band hall March 7, 2007 - 2:22PM GREENVILLE, Texas (AP) - A 16-year-old student fatally shot himself Wednesday morning inside the band hall at Greenville High School, police said.

The student's identity wasn't immediately released, and the police chief of this East Texas city said officers haven't found any students who witnessed the shooting.

"We had no heads up on this whatsoever," Greenville school district superintendent Lloyd Graham said. "We would have not allowed this to happen."

In a statement, city spokeswoman Lori Philyaw said police responded to the shooting at 7:14 a.m. - about 15 minutes before the first bell - and that the student was pronounced dead later at a local hospital. Source - Brownsville Herald

Three school suicides in a 15-month period. These do not include the school massacres where students gunned down classmates before taking their own life, or student mass murder-suicide.

ERDENHEIM, Pa. — An 11th-grader brought a rifle to school and shot himself to death in a hallway Tuesday morning between classes, according to officials and a witness.

The teenager first fired shots into the ceiling in the science-wing hallway, said Michael Delaurentis, 18, who said he was about 30 feet away. "I was walking to my class," Delaurentis said. "I just hear 'Get down!' I heard shots fired into the ceiling and I saw smoke." The teenager then shot himself, officials said. Source - FOX News

Were Jajuan and other student's very public suicides, acts of violence and/or rage, or desperation?

Schools are no longer havens for learning, they've become magnets for grief counselors.