That’s sad beyond words phouka. When it’s appropriate I hope someone else of importance to Eric will sit down and talk with him and encourage him to follow a different path.
I understand your sorrow but your anger as well. It’s such a damn waste and affects not just the person but all around him as well.
Yes, it’s our own life but we have a responsibility to others as well.
My sincere condolences.
I’m very sorry, phouka, for everyone’s loss. I knew kids like Lance when I was in high school, and some of them were good kids. Teenagers are pretty much all stupid in their own different ways (at least, all the ones I’ve known, including myself as a teenager, were); it’s just tragic when one chooses such a destructive way to be stupid.
My condolences.
Daniel
I’m sorry to hear this phouka, and I empathize with you.
One of my students died of a head injury very recently, so I can relate to the situation.
The details regarding my student are in my LJ, but I don’t want to repost them here because I don’t want to take away from your thread and because I think I’ll cry if i describe it again.
May these needless tragedies remind us all to live our lives to the fullest, every day.
My husband was a teacher for a few years, and one of his students attempted suicide by drinking anti-freeze. He was a great kid, creative, smart…but didn’t fit in. i LOVED him (I met him at school events). Brian and I took his attempt and subsequent troubles as if it had been our OWN child. People so often overlook how much of their HEART teachers put in to their students. Every loss is a heartbreak on par with losing a relative.
Cole burner, kindly go fuck yourself you goddamn oxygen-wasting coathanger-scarred cockknuckle. Have a little class you festering pile of camel shit.
Sorry to hear about your loss.
[[[[[[[phouka]]]]]]]]
phouka, I am so sorry to hear this.
I hope his brother gets through this, given how he admired Lance. Just absolutely tragic.
cole burner - wtflyingfuck? You hijack a thread about a teen suicide to rant about evolution?
You sad, sad fuck.
phouka, Lance’s self destructive-yet-charming course in life may serve a purpose, to warn other kids who were on the edge or living on the edge of doing what he did for fun or just to escape. His senseless loss probably will save more kids who are on the edge of trying something or who live on that edge in that shadowy world between reality and delusion to stop their behavior before it is too late. At least we can hope so.
[soapbox]
Adults readily forget what it is like to have nine million negative, paranoid, self destructive thoughts running around their head during the teen years, fuel this with peer pressure, drug use and and constant barrage of media images that no one can hope to acheive fueled by hormornes that are surging, you get more than just a handful of dabblers into the lighter drugs ( pot and booze). It’s a very chaotic time in a teen’s head while waiting for the frontal lobes (where decision making skills are made and not fully formed in most until early to mid twenties) to close. Everyone wants to escape it and everyone seems to be against them. Teachers, parents, the cool kids, the Man. The system. Whatever.
They need outlets. Unfortunately, in today’s society, kids are just watching uber-violent movies and games and not learning how to be by themselves or to entertain themselves in solitary pursuits and the joy of a hobby, be it painting, reading, woodwork, cooking, sewing , mechanics, music or something else.
The kids, because of the constant TV occupying their mind, cannot handle the off time from the set and want that escapism. And, as most of us has realized, it is nigh on impossible to have a TV/Movie like life. Reality, does indeed suck. but not all the time. And so they wander to a quick fix from it all, whether out of complete boredom, escapism or rebellion or an unfortunate combination of all three.
That is what your job is, to help those with talent to discover the joy of art. You know its theraputic qualities, your gift is to show your love of it to them.
I hope his brother can overcome all of this instead of being sucked downward to a similar fate.
cole burner, first of all, the OP teaches art; therefore, I am certain that no teaching of evolution goes on in that class. Second of all, you’re being a jerk. There is a time and a place for everything, and this is not that time and place. By acting in this manner, you hurt your cause rather than help it. Just keep that in mind.
phouka, my deepest sympathies. I used to date a guy like Lance, and, sometimes, stuff like that just. . .happens. I wish it didn’t, though. :
:
I’m sorry, phouka. When I was in school, I saw a couple young, bright classmates of mine die because they didn’t think anything that bad would happen to them, and one did commit suicide when his depression suddenly swamped him. I don’t know if it’s possible to save them all, I hate to say, but I know you did what you could to try to teach him about something he could do besides drugs. That doesn’t seem to be enough for all of them, though.
I’m sorry, {{phouka}}
There is nothing sadder than the loss of a kid (except the loss of more than one. It devestates everyone. Family, school and community.
I’m sorry and I wish I didn’t understand as well as you but I do.
You will be with this for a long time if not forever.
I’m very sorry for all of you who knew Lance.
P.S.
Especially Lance.
I’m sorry, phouka.
phouka, I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you.
Hang in there.
Yeesh. There’s probably a better time and place for that Darwinism soap box of yours, cole burner. Show some fucking decorum, already.
phouka, I’m sorry about Lance.
phouka, I know how much you care about your students and I am so sorry to hear about Lance.
Having been a screw-up kids myself, I can tell you that I am afraid not a single bulletproof teenager will learn enough from this to not make his/her own mistakes. If I could have learned from the mistakes of others, I wouldn’t have ended up where I did. I made it, but so many others did not.
I would be angry too, and it’s ok.
too young to die.
RIP little guy 
I’m so sorry, Phouka.
I work in Adolescent Medicine and we hear about the statistics all the time, whether it’s suicide, drug overdose, murder, etc etc etc ad nauseum. It’s when we hear about the individuals like Lance-- great kids, funny, bright, full of potential whether they realize it yet or not-- it just breaks your heart.
phouka, I wish there was something I could say that would be useful. Stories like this always make me wonder if it is a good idea for my husband and I to try to have children …
… and then I remember that there are people like you out there who will do what they can to keep this from happening to any more kids. And I can’t thank you enough for that.
All those people who say that “those who can’t, teach” obviously never knew someone like you. I am sorry you lost this one - but who knows how many lives you may already have saved?
Vaya con Dios.