Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection

Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by Animats on Sunday September 06, 2015 @11:16PM (#10179910)

From the article: "Several times in high school she had found herself attracted to other girls, but believing her parents and church did not fully accept homosexuality, she had pushed aside those feelings."

This reads more like a gay issue than a school pressure issue. The author of the article may have an agenda - by the same author, "A University Recognizes a Third Gender: Neutral", "A Gender-Neutral Glossary", and "Writing Around Gender".[1]

The Huffington Post has an article about suicides at MIT: "It's not good enough to be "very good" or God forbid, just "good." Excellence has become the new average. What a burden for kids, especially those whose boats don't rise with the tide of increased expectations and higher and higher standards."[2]

Here in Silicon Valley, there are now suicide-watch guards at the three railroad crossings near Palo Alto's Paly and Gunn high schools. Infrared cameras are being installed.[3]

[1] http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...

[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-schultz/lowering-the-pr...

[3] http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/09/02/caltrain-begin...

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by untog on Sunday September 06, 2015 @11:22PM (#10179930)

The author of the article may have an agenda

Or maybe they are a journalist with a beat. Not saying that's definitely the case here, but someone writing on the same topic repeatedly is hardly rare - it's usually because it's something they've researched deeply and are knowledgeable in.

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by goldfeld on Sunday September 06, 2015 @11:54PM (#10180004)

Programmers have passion but journalists have agendas!

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by xienze on Monday September 07, 2015 @12:20AM (#10180049)

Programmers don't have the same ability to influence many people with their work.

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by untog on Monday September 07, 2015 @04:09PM (#10182837)

Oh, but they do. What algorithm organises your Facebook feed? What content does it prioritise?

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by yareally on Monday September 07, 2015 @02:02AM (#10180264)

> Here in Silicon Valley, there are now suicide-watch guards at the three railroad crossings near Palo Alto's Paly and Gunn high schools. Infrared cameras are being installed.[3]

Doesn't that seem a bit short-sided to assume that people will only attempt suicide at railroad crossings and nowhere else along the rail line?

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by Animats on Monday September 07, 2015 @02:08AM (#10180274)

Fences. Now, 8 foot fences with anti-climbing devices on top.

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Re:Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection by yareally on Monday September 07, 2015 @02:28AM (#10180320)

Oh, heh if they have a fence covering all the rail that seems more realistic.

I live in the Ohio and never saw anything like that, so was a bit puzzled how they thought guarding the crossing alone would help.

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