BS Student Suicide

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
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<p>A few notes:</p>

<p>1) While the article says the survey refers to activity in April, I’m fairly certain that survey was conducted in mid-April and refered to behavior in the last month. As Andover’s spring break is in late March, that would include activity from then too. </p>

<p>2) They claim to remove surveys that are patently false, but I’d be shocked if they’ve removed them all. Certainly, there are some people every year who completely blow it off (something like 2-3% a year support an hourly cocaine habit) and I’m sure those are easy to identify and remove. However, the survey is long, really long, much longer than those abbreviated results would imply. By the end, there are quite a few people not taking it seriously. </p>

<p>3) While Mr. Alovisetti said he was unsurprised by the 2% suicide rate, I have to say that I am, unless the majority of these happen off campus, and the students display little to no suicidal tendencies upon their return. In my two years at Andover, I know of only one student who attempted it and the school took it very seriously. The student was put on suicide watch in the health center, was provided with counselling, advisors, house counsellors, and parents were notified, et cetera. </p>

<p>Bottom Line: Yes there are drugs at Andover, yes there is alcohol. In my two years, I’ve never seen any of it, though of course I’ve heard the stories. It’s available if you go looking for it. Very few people are foolish enough to volunteer the information. And just because it happens, doesn’t mean the school doesn’t take a hard line on it. If you’re caught, there’s a very good chance you’ll be spending the rest of the year (if you’re lucky) at home. Even so, the school values the safety of the students above all else. There’s counselling in Graham House and Isham and there’s always sanctuary (Students can call sanctuary if drugs/alcohol are being used; it absolves them of punishment and gets help for those involved. It’s to ensure that students won’t avoid getting help to avoid getting in trouble). </p>

<p>I can also second Sugarkim’s first post (#7). There are a ton of people looking out for each and every person, which is what leads me to doubt the suicide statistic in the first place. And, to be blunt, I’d be very surprised if many people were able to attempt it without it getting around school.</p>

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<p>off the topic: Andover as a school deserves respect and applause for conducting such a survey and posting the results in their online version of the school newspaper. It gave people an opprtunity to scrutize the school and ask questions, which is not always pleasant to the school authority. Wish the “peer schools” would do the same.</p>

1 Like
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<p>St. Paul’s pushed back their start last winter by 1/2 hour and will do it again this winter.</p>

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<p>I truly wish Exeter had an online newspaper such as the Phillipian.</p>

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<p>Suicide itself is fortunately a rare event and so it is hard to measure or compare rates among small populations, such as one school, or even several schools. Thoughts of or attempts at suicide, unless they get medical attention, are hard to define and therefore to measure or compare. Putting the NYT article into context may help. A few years before that girl’s experience, when some of the same students and many adults were at the school, there was a devastating student suicide at PA. Wanting to avoid another such tragedy, the school was probably on hyperguard.</p>