Paul Scott comment: "How much should be said about suicide attempts?"

Last Friday a Decorah Middle School student tried to commit suicide by hanging himself in the school locker rooom.  The student was found, revived and sent to Winneshiek Medical Center and then transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester.

This has been big news to anyone with a Decorah MIddle School student, of course.  Emotions are running high as parents worry about their own children.

That led to this e-mail to decorahnews.com: "I find it appalling that once again Decorah is trying to hide something this tragic!  We need this out in the open so parents can speak to their children and make sure we know what our kids are feeling so it doesn't happen again!  Face it Decorah, you have the same issues as the rest of the country and not reporting the news doesn't mean it doesn't happen."

My answer to this person would be that I agree--depending upon what is meant by "We need this out in the open."  Because the flip side of informing the public about a suicide attempt is the potential further damage it could do to a young person who is already struggling so much that they attempted to kill themselves.

So let's not dwell on the particulars of Friday's event, but instead concentrate on getting parents to speak to their children.  Three months ago the Urbandale School District faced the same issues when a 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl committed suicide within a week.  The school district responded by bringing together a crisis team and counselors from other schools and by reaching out to community groups who could offer services to students.

With school coming to a close in Decorah, the responsibility for helping parents discuss the issue of suicide with their children will fall more on community groups.  How about it--isn't it a good time to hold a community forum for worried Decorah Middle School parents who want to keep their students out of harm's way?

In the meantime, decorahnews.com's treatment of suicides will remain the same--discussing it as an issue, but not identifying particular cases or particular individuals involved.