13-Year-Old Boy Found Dead at Middle School in Apparent Suicide: Police

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
March 6, 2019US News
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13-Year-Old Boy Found Dead at Middle School in Apparent Suicide: Police
Police tape in a file photo. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

A 13-year-old California boy was found dead at his middle school on March 5  in an apparent suicide.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to Don Juan Avila Middle School around 6:30 a.m. after a call led to the discovery of the boy’s body.

The investigation is being treated as a suicide, sheriff spokeswoman Carrie Braun told KTLA. She said no other students were on campus at the time and that the school was closed down for the day along with an elementary school that’s at the same address.

Parents and children gathered at a nearby park to talk about what happened.

“When you see stuff like that, you want to talk to somebody about it—a teacher, or if you know the kid’s parents,” Ian Ellison told his daughter. “You have to say something about it because we end up with a situation like this.”

Psychologist Kita Curry said that more than 500 children between the ages of 10 and 14 committed suicide in 2018.

“We need to realize that when some people are in terrible pain, they can’t figure out another solution,” Curry told KTLA. “They go to this solution and we need to notice when people seem to be feeling different and feeling helpless, and reach out to them.”

Kita Curry, the president and CEO of the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Center, added to Fox 11 that the Internet, social media, and cyberbullying are among the factors in teen suicides.

If children see a friend struggling or have someone tell them they’re thinking of suicide, they should alert a parent or teacher, she said.

It might betray a trust or confidence but “it’s better than going to their funeral,” Curry added.

Student Jocelyn Ellison said at the park that it’s tough for children to ask for help.

“We don’t like talking to stuff about that to our parents. It’s embarrassing so we tell our friends instead,” she told NBC LA.

Students said the apparent suicide, though, may mark a change in how the topic is discussed and how students interact with their peers.

“I hope everyone comes together just saying hi to someone will make some day,” student Makenna August said.

“Anytime you can share life and pains and sorrows that you go through helps children deal with what they’re feeling so they don’t feel so alone,” added her mother Traci August.

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