Don’t be afraid to seek help, they say. The suicide rate of college students have risen from five to seven percent in the past few years, and has increasingly been the reason for deaths among college students. On the outside, youths and young adults seem to have much to live for, and strive for goals only one can dream of achieving. However, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among college students, where the leading cause of death are vehicle accidents. Many would assume that college students have a higher chance of dying from alcohol related mishaps, but studies over the past few decades have shown that the suicide rate among college students have gradually risen over time, and the connection may be the education itself.
According to a research back in the 1960’s, over a course of 7 years, two researches, Micheal L. Peck Ph.D. and Albert Schrut M.D., have compiled data concerning suicidal behaviors among college students and non-college students. Of the statistics gathered from college students, Peck and Schrut “concluded that the rate of suicide was significantly higher than in students than non-students” (Peck and Schrut, 149), especially for those who were currently attending, at the time, prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Cornell, Berkley, as well as prominent British universities.
In order to prove the accuracy of their data, they “gathered statistical data from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office” which consisted of the data of college students who committed suicide between the years of 1960 and 1967. The data has shown in between those years, “78 college students have committed suicide”, which makes the suicide rate about 5.0~5.1 per 100,000 with minor fluctuations in between. Despite the research done and statistics collected, the suicide rate among non-students were higher than students at least in the county of Los Angeles, however, this could be an issue concerning the numbers in population.
Just in 4 years, the leading cause of death among college students rose from third to second. These students only have limited resources to safely guide themselves out of their depression and misery, but there is more fear in what others may think of them that engulfs their strength to seek help. Nevertheless, these students get advised to receive help; that seeking psychological help from counselors in their university is nothing to be ashamed of; to not be afraid to get help.
These words of support can only go so far in the legal state of mind of a counselor. There have been cases of students who have been suspended due to the counselor’s perspective of the student having high potential in harming themselves, or others, or that the student may be too clinically depressed for them to attend school at the moment. In the mind of a sane individual, medically dismissing a student from attending their university, even temporarily, will cause even more stress and depression, causing them to think that there is definitely something wrong with them. Arising issues like these situations cause students in the future to rethink about their decision to visit a counselor in their university.
As reported by Emory University, “every year, [about] 860,000 people attempt suicide”, which is about 1 person every 38 seconds. Nearly half of them are treated for self-inflicted injuries. If you do the math, according to the provided statistics, during a university lecture class that goes on for about 80 minutes, about 126 people attempt suicide, 28 of which are college students. In a year of an estimated suicide attempt of 860,000 people, roughly 12%, or 200,000, are college students. The biggest risk factor for suicidal behavior and attempts among college students may be stressful live events, family history, substances abuse, and exposure to other suicides.
Exposing themselves to other people, especially college students, is extremely dangerous for the eyes of a college student seeking a way out of their stressful life. Even today, we look up to leaders or powerful figures as our role model, and try to reach above the stars as they did. If a college student looks up and sees that another college student has hung himself, most would think that it would be a sad and tragic moment for that college student to have experienced such a traumatic sight. Though, in fact, it is very possible for that college student to see that if the college student who hung themselves found suicide as an answer, then they may influence others to seek for the same way out.
Back in 2006, a student in Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland hung himself from a tree in the middle the campus for a student to walk by early one morning and start off their day with such an eerie sight. Although we have many concerning issues that are given to students during their college orientation, such as sexual assault or physical abuse, we rarely get note of suicidal behaviors and attempts. The topic of suicides in students is a “growing issue of concerns to colleges and universities with considerable controversy over colleges’ responsibility for preventing these deaths.”
The strange part of this suicide incident is that the victim was a popular athletic student with excellent grades, as well as in good standing with the student body. Many have blamed his girlfriend for breaking up with him before his suicide, but there was more to that story that we would never find out. The tree became a shrine for many of the victims’ friends and peers, which left gifts, flowers, pictures, and notes. Soon after, the college disallowed the students from leaving any more offerings to the shrine, because the college was afraid that other student may see the tree as an answer for their problems.
In 2004, a former George Washington University student, by the name of Jordan Nott due to his severe depression he revealed to his counselor, which then the counselor transferred that information over to the university administrators without the students consent. Due to this incident, Nott sued the school after his suspension, which was followed by his hospitalization for his mental health. Nott settled with the university, out of court, for an undisclosed amount, which could all have been avoided if the counselor did their job right. I don’t know about everyone else, but I believe it’s common sense to not depress a student even more after admitting his severe depression, while in the hope of seeking help from a, what it seemed to be, trustworthy counselor.
On the contrary, there are some counselors who aren’t doing enough for their students, brushing off their concerns even after consistent visits for a certain period of time. In 2000, Elizabeth Shin, an MIT student, set herself on fire in her dorm room. The victim’s parents sued the school for not protecting their daughter, even though she constantly visited the school counselor with multiple counseling sessions for her severe depression and suicidal thoughts for a year. Her parents made a settlement of $27.65 million with the university in 2006, but no amount of money can ever bring back a preventable death. This lawsuit was immediately noticed by other college administrative offices nationwide.
Under the federal law of the United States, all schools can legally remove mentally, or non-mentally, ill students for disruptive conduct, which can include harmful behaviors, suicidal thoughts, etc. Also, school counselors have the power to expose details of the student to parents, law enforcement’s, and school administrators if the student poses an imminent risk to themselves or others without risking liability.
All of these presented issues can be potentially prevented if the legal privileges of university counselors and psychologists have specific restraints based on the issue that is being handled. If students acknowledged even the slightest possibility of successfully receiving help and treatment, then it is very possible that they would choose the higher road than taking their own life. These students aren’t ignorant of the helpful resources that is offered to them in their university, but rather fear judgement and the possibility of the worst case scenario; getting suspended or expelled due to university counselor’s judgement of the students’ mental state.
We are told by our family, friends, and peers to not be afraid to receive help, and that seeking help is a normal thing; that everybody does it. To these people’s eyes, they believe it’s an easy step for depressed people to just simply agree that they’re right and expect them to immediately pick up the phone to make an appointment with a therapist.
Truth is, making that first step into believing that help will even be helpful at all is the biggest denial that they have to accept. Sometimes it’s hard to believe for these people with issues, that causes them to tip their mental stability, can even find the right therapist to effectively help them; and how long will that help take? Because of this, the quicker method of suicide triumphs the necessity to seek for advice on their own will.
Evaluation
- Well, the title isn’t incredibly creative, but it shows a cause of issue of students, which points towards young adults between the ages of 18-30. My lede “Don’t be afraid to seek help, they say”. The part where it says “they say” implies that seeking help is actually wrong or the opposite of what you should do. It makes the reader think why the writer, myself, is disagreeing of seeking help because of it’s negative potential to stress or depress the students even more.
- My introductory section of the article gives a glimpse of the statistics that will be more elaborated throughout the article, as well as showing how these young adults seem happy and perky on the outside, but in the inside, there are more issues than we assume there are. Since suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students, it shows that there is a big issue if students are taking their own life instead of poisoning their own liver to death. Rationally, we would think these young adults would stupidly or accidentally kill themselves through car accidents, partying, alcohol, fighting, etc., but the truth is college students are going through more than we believe if suicide has bumped up to 2nd leading cause of death just in 4 years. Also, how university counselors aren’t doing their job well enough for these problems to consistently exist.
- The entire fact of college students are having stress and depression issues with the education they’re receiving and the lack of help they’re not receiving is pretty much asking for support and evidence. No one can simply say that college students are going through or handling more than we believe, so that is something that is directly asking for evidence to support the article. I don’t believe this topic is very “obvious” to the readers; if anything they just know or heard of college students taking their own life here and there on the news.
- The writer (myself) clarifies all form of information that needs back up evidence, such as statistics, professional input from trustworthy sources. The writer also orders each paragraph by what the writer believes is important to read in a specific order while the pictures show an idea of how the writer feels about what he’s writing. This isn’t necessary a historical topic, though it shows evidence of research from over 40-50 years back.
- The audience of the NYT’s magazine may argue that it is necessary for counselors or therapists to do what they believe is right, such as letting the university administrators know the students information that is being told to the counselor in certain circumstances, but that is why I showed evidence of students being overestimate and underestimated of their mental stability. I do understand not all counselors and therapists are like this, but there are innocent students who simply looked for guidance and support, but got suspended for mental instability. I believe the order and sequence of this material isn’t exactly a “story” to make sense, but paragraphs of information that get more and more intense as the reader reads along.
- I wanted to talk about a controversial issue by talking about my side of the issue so that others can attack me head on in this article to observe their view of this issue. I spoke poorly about counselors and therapist, about how they have too much power if they choose to, but I do know there are a good amount of counselors and therapists who won’t take extreme measures (speaking from personal experience).
- I included 8 secondary sources, 2 primary sources, and multiple visual sources for readers to understand more than just words being written from left to right across the screen. There are two separate issues that need to be addressed here: the rise of college students suiciding, and university counselors unfairly suspending students and making them check their mental status from overestimating their mental stability.
- As stated in the previous question, there were two separate issues that needed to be addressed that both tie into a similar topic. I introduced my argument by talking about various suicide cases and multiple cases of students being overestimate or underestimated of their mental stability. I believe I included enough evidence, statistics, and my argument to put my entire controversial issue in context, also enough for readers to come with an arguable debate.
- I believe I effectively used the positions of authority (university counselors and therapists) to my own advantage, saying that some of these authority figures, that I specifically pointed out, can’t be trusted of their judgement. Just like not all teachers/professors aren’t qualified to teach/lecture, even if they’ve obtained a degree, I believe the same goes for university counselors. I successfully reached out to the audience using rhetorical tools by, hopefully, making them connect with these students who are involved in these stories.
- I provided visuals, but not too much, for readers to establish a connection with the story as it’s being told. For people who think on a deeper perspective, they will visually understand what the visuals mean and how they connect with the article. I believe the visuals are very meaningful, not only to “brighten” up the article, but to not make the article look so plain. I don’t believe the article will be affected too much, because to a person of perspective like me, the content of the information is much more important than looking at visuals.
- The article developed over time through peer reviews, teachers comments, and various drafts. The class exercise of scrambling the blog made me view the article in a different way and gave me an idea of another argument to include. Also, the way we included our “claim” helped me focus in on my argument more to make it precise and clear.
- I included multiple hyperlinks by each story that supports my article on the name or main subject of that specific story. I believe it’s very effective for readers to click the link to look for back up evidence, and also very appropriately positioned.
- I reviewed the article over and over again to check for grammar, check to make sure the style of the paragraphs are effectively separated for an article style, and the usage of hyperlinks, visuals, statistics, and factual stories helped make the article more credible. Especially because I used authority figures, such as university counselors, who can potentially have too much power, the readers will possibly have an epiphany that this may be true.