Free Republic

In the most privileged, affluent country in the history of the world, our young people are experiencing a sharp rise in mental health problems and suicide attempts.

Beth Palmer was 17 and dreaming of becoming a singer in March 2020 when the United Kingdom went into lockdown because of the coronavirus. One month later, she was dead. "She was a wonderful, wonderful daughter. She was just funny, she lit up the room.," said Mike Palmer, Beth’s father. "She was so affectionate and loving as well. She basically had the world at her feet. She had everything, everything to live for.” Palmer didn’t die of the coronavirus. She took her own life. An aspiring singer and vocal student at the Access Creative College in Manchester, Palmer crumbled in...

A 17-year-old Dutch girl was legally allowed to kill herself using euthanasia after she was raped at age 14 and spent years battling depression, according to a report Tuesday.

A perfect storm of murder, addiction and carelessness has fueled a recent and troubling increase in deaths among U.S. children and teens, a new government report shows. The total death rate for those aged 10 to 19 rose 12 percent between 2013 and 2016, mostly due to an increase in deaths from accidental injury, homicide and suicide, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. In short, the United States is becoming less safe for teenagers. The primary causes of injury deaths were motor vehicle accidents, suicide, firearms-related murders and drug overdoses, the report discovered. "For children...

Austin police are now tasked with launching an in-custody death investigation to determine what went wrong during the arrest and custody process that led to a teen shooting and killing himself in the back of a patrol car...Anam had some run-ins with police in recent years...charged him with engaging in organized crime in connection to numerous vehicle thefts and home burglaries...friends describe him as the "coolest" person in high school.

(FOX19) - A Change.org petition asking to ban transgender conversion therapy following Leelah Alcorn's death has received more than 233,000 signatures in two days. The Transgender Human Rights Institute posted the petition on Dec. 31 asking President Barack Obama and the leadership of the House and Senate to begin the process of banning transgender conversion therapy throughout the nation. "'Conversion therapies' have been documented to cause great harms and in this case, Leelah's death. Therapists that engage in the attempt to brainwash or reverse any child's gender identity are seriously unethical and legislation is needed to end such practices immediately,"...

FULL TITLE: Christian parents accused of 'cruelty' in their 17-year-old transgender daughter's suicide note REFUSE to accept her female identity - but insist they loved 'him' The mother of a transgender teen who killed herself over the holiday season is speaking out, and making it clear she did not and does not approve of what she believes was her daughter's choice to be transgender. Carla Alcorn of Kings Mills, Ohio said in an interview that she and her husband did not 'support' their daughter Leelah Alcorn, while also refusing to acknowledge her daughter's sex, using male pronouns and referring to...

When Ohio teenager Josh Alcorn told his parents he wanted to live as a girl, that he felt trapped in his own body, his parents said they wouldn’t stand for that. “We don’t support that, religiously,” his mother told CNN Wednesday, her voice breaking. “But we told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what. I loved my son. People need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy.” Crossing out the name “Josh,” the 17-year-old signed the name he wanted to be known as — “Leelah” — in a...

The suicide of a transgender teen is catching national attention in part because of a suicide note she left behind online. Leelah Alcorn, 17, of Kings Mills, Ohio, was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on I-71 about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to local media. Posthumous posts started to appear on her Tumblr page, titled “Lazer Princess,” including her suicide note and a post apologizing to her closest friends. “My death needs to mean something,” she wrote. “My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look...

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don't ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won't do anything but make them hate them self....

A former student at the elite Horace Mann School in The Bronx says his pedophile English teacher bragged about driving 12 kids to suicide — and vowed to make him the 13th. “You will join a long list of willful children who lashed out and then couldn’t make it on their own,” Robert Berman told one of his teen victims, Stephen Fife, according to Fife’s upcoming memoir, “The 13th Boy: A Memoir of Education and Abuse.”

"Third, we find that, to the extent that we can explain the rise in youth suicide over time, the most important aggregate variable explaining this change seems to be the increased share of youths living in homes with a divorced parent." Before liberals were for marriage and family, they were strongly against them. They have been undermining God's plan for human family relationship no doubt all along in one way or another, but since the 1950's they've especially made progress. The article linked to from the National Bureau of Economic Research discusses the little talked about link between divorce and...

A popular 15-year-old student has committed suicide after he reportedly faced expulsion and could have been placed on the sex offenders' register simply for streaking at a high school football game. Christian Adamek, from Huntsville, Alabama, hanged himself on October 2, a week after he was arrested for running naked across the Sparkman High football field during a game. The teenager died two days later from his injuries and on Wednesday, friends and family gathered at a memorial service as they struggled to comprehend the beloved student's death. A video of Adamek streaking during a game against a rival team...

In a rather appalling move, DC Comics is holding a talent search for artists that requires the entrants to draw DC character Harley Quinn in various suicidal tableaus, one of which is also naked. Here are the panel submission requirements: PANEL 1 Harley is on top of a building, holding a large DETACHED cellphone tower in her hands as lightning is striking just about everywhere except her tower. She is looking at us like she cannot believe what she is doing. Beside herself. Not happy. PANEL 2 Harley is sitting in an alligator pond, on a little island with a...

The Logan's daughter hung herself after she sent a naked photo of herself to her boyfriend. He passed it on to several students in several schools. "My only baby that I will never be able to touch again," Cynthia Logan said through tears. "I will never have grandchildren. I will never be able to hand down my heirlooms. I'm just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want.""Schools need to understand our kids are targeting each other and how technology is being used as a weapon," Aftab said. "None of them (the schools)...

Kids’ antidepressant use dropped during same time period, study says CHICAGO - New government figures show a surprising increase in youth suicides after a decade of decline, and some mental health experts think a drop in use of antidepressant drugs may be to blame. The suicide rate climbed 18 percent from 2003 to 2004 for Americans under age 20, from 1,737 deaths to 1,985. Most suicides occurred in older teens, according to the data — the most current to date from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, the suicide rate among 15- to 19-year-olds fell in...

VANCOUVER -- Lesbian teens are nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual girls, according to a survey presented at a national conference of public health experts in Vancouver Monday. The survey found 38 per cent of lesbian girls and 30.4 per cent of bisexual girls said they had attempted suicide in the previous year, compared with 8.2 per cent of heterosexual girls. The results were from a 2003 survey of 30,000 students between grades 7 and 12 done by the B.C.-based McCreary Centre Society, which asked students if they had attempted suicide in the previous year. By...

Suicide among American youngsters and teens has dropped dramatically in the last decade, particularly with regard to firearms deaths, the government said Thursday. The suicide rate for those ages 10 to 19 fell by about a quarter, from 6.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 1992 to 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. CDC researchers did not immediately know why the rate dropped, but one expert said tougher child access to firearms and issues concerning stigma over sexual orientation have played an important role in reducing teenage suicides. "When we look at the completed...

Sex, sadness and suicideRebecca Hagelin (archive) June 5, 2003 | Print | SendEven those TV viewers who consider themselves big fans of the teen soaps – "Beverly Hills 90210," "Party of Five" and the now-defunct "Dawson's Creek" – must have realized that something about the way those shows depicted sex just didn't ring true. The "cool" kids, the kids everyone wanted to be like, were the ones who "did it." Supposedly, they were tough enough and strong enough to have sex and then walk away. They were able to "do it" for "its" sake. They didn't have to get involved...