26 March 2019 - Two Parkland survivors and a Sandy Hook victim’s father commit suicide within a week
2 Parkland students and a Sandy Hook father died in a week from apparent suicides
Madison Park (CNN, 26/03/2019)
In a span of a week, there have been three suicides that shared a connection.
Two were young survivors of the massacre at the school in Parkland, Florida, and one was a parent of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. The two communities are facing a new facet of grief after three people connected to the shootings took their own lives in a matter of days.
Here's a look at their stories.
Pain never ended for two school massacre survivors and a victim's dad
(The Sydney Morning Herald, 26/03/2019)
Tragedies such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and Sandy Hook Elementary school massacres eventually fade from view, blunted by other mass shootings and the passage of time. But for the survivors, the pain can never end.
The father of a Sandy Hook victim killed himself Monday, just days after two Stoneman Douglas students also took their lives. The Florida deaths have officials in Parkland and nearby Coral Springs renewing their communities' focus on the suicide prevention and mental health resources that remain available 13 months after a gunman killed 17 people at the high school.
In Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first-graders died along with six staff members six years ago, the body of 49-year-old Jeremy Richman was found outside his office Monday morning.
The Psychological Aftermath of Surviving School Shootings
Jared Keller (Pacific Standard, 25/03/2019)
Both were students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during the February 14th, 2018, shooting that left 17 people dead. Both survived the school shooting—the deadliest since the Columbine High School massacre. Now, both are dead of suicide within a single week.
Sydney Aiello, a 19-year-old Parkland graduate, killed herself with a gunshot wound to the head last weekend, the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office told NBC News. Her family told CBS Miami that Aiello had struggled with college because classrooms scared her and she had survivor's guilt following the death of her friend in the shooting.
A week later, on March 23rd, the Coral Springs Police Department announced that a current Stoneman Douglas sophomore (whose name remains unreleased at this time) had died in an "apparent suicide."
Two Parkland Suicides Highlight the Lasting Impact of Trauma. Here's How Parents and Teachers Can Help Teens Who Are Struggling
Jamie Ducharme and Katie Reilly (Time, 25/03/2019)
A pair of recent suicide deaths in Parkland, Fla., serve as a stark reminder of the lingering effects of trauma — and underscore the importance of providing long-term support to those who are living with its consequences.
Just days after 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, who survived the mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year, died by suicide, police confirmed that an unnamed current student at the high school had also died by “apparent suicide.” Police did not release details about the second Parkland student’s death or say whether they were enrolled at the school during last year’s rampage, but Aiello’s family has spoken openly about the survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they say she suffered after the tragedy — highlighting the lasting consequences of mass traumas that have become all too common.
Suicide Contagion Or “Copycat Suicides” Are A Public Health Issue, & Approaching The Issue With Nuance Is Important
Melanie Mignucci (Bustle, 25/03/2019)
Following the news that two survivors of the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, died by suicide within a week of each other, it was reported that the father of a victim of the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, died by suicide on March 25. Jeremy Richman, the father of Avielle Richman, had founded a nonprofit with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, that supported research on the neurological foundations of violent behavior, the New York Times reported, after their daughter’s death by gun violence. The news of these three deaths of people affected by mass violence has many concerned about suicide contagion, or the idea that news about suicide could “inspire” others to attempt suicide themselves. But suicidologists say that it’s important to understand these issues in the context of public health.
“The public needs to understand that we don't have much research about suicide,” April Foreman, a psychologist and board member of American Association of Suicidology, tells Bustle. “We have even less research about suicide clusters and contagion. There's just so little that we know.”