# People Keep Killing Themselves at My School **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 14, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442 "2010-03-14T15:23:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/41 "2010-03-17T13:37:21Z")
[Nine people had jumped off the tower on the University of Texas campus](http://www.utexas.edu/tours/mainbuilding/news/reopen/nytimes111798.html) before it was closed in 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/42 "2010-03-17T18:45:02Z")
I have depression, which I didn’t get treatment for until I was 28. I considered going to Cornell for grad school. > [@luxiia](#): > > As sad and stark of a place as Ithaca can be, bear in mind that spring is right around the corner In fact, [today](http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/ithaca-ny.html) is the day when you (and we) have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. This doesn’t fall exactly on the vernal equinox (which will be Sunday), because the Sun isn’t a point source of light, and because atmospheric refraction makes sunrise seem a little earlier and sunset a little later than it really is. [weather.com](http://weather.com) says you guys are having sun now, like we are. Get out there and enjoy the sun! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/43 "2010-03-17T18:53:35Z")
[QUOTE=The Hamster King] I’m betting it’s Cornell. There’s a long, sad tradition of students throwing themselves into the gorges. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Cliffy] Cornell’s reputation for suicides was greatly exaggerated, in part because when there was an incident, it gave newspaper editors excuses to print majestic pictures of the Ithaca gorges [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=luxiia] The suicides are terrible, and then there are the ones who go out drinking and never return home, only to be found later, or that decided to explore the gorge a little closer, [/QUOTE] I’ve never been to Ithaca - what’s special about the gorge? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/44 "2010-03-17T21:09:14Z")
I’m also a Cornellian, and I read about it in the Times today and here in your thread. It’s very sad. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/45 "2010-03-17T21:15:50Z")
You want to talk about [“cluster suicides”](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3399528.ece), Bridgend in Wales is the capital. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/46 "2010-03-18T02:06:15Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I’ve never been to Ithaca - what’s special about the gorge? Gorges - plural. They’re beautiful but dangerous, especially after dark and especially when under the influence. Slippery slate walkways and stairs - one wrong step and down you go, 200 feet onto the slate stream bed. I don’t believe that Cornell has a larger rate of suicide than other schools, but the suicides tend to be very public. Leaping off the suspension bridge, or Stewart Ave bridge, or Thurston Ave bridge, or any of the other bridges on the gorges where the lure of the downstream plunge is hypnotic. There’s no way to keep the events out of the public eye and out of the news when each suicide requires government rescue personnel to retrieve the body. Motorgirl, Arts '92 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/47 "2010-03-18T05:12:27Z")
> [@Baby\_Driver](#): > > I think about the poor boys - they’ve all been boys - sitting in their terrible, claustrophobic, unremitting rooms, making that terrible decision. So the dating possibilities for non suicidal males are looking up at Cornell 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/48 "2010-03-18T08:37:50Z")
Are there any statistics into how many of these are due to failure to perform academically ? Like failing /poor grades in exams ? Also how did they get into cornell , if they are not academically brilliant ? ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/49 "2010-03-18T17:52:52Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > I don’t believe that Cornell has a larger rate of suicide than other schools, but the suicides tend to be very public. According to [this CNN story](http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/cornell.suicides/index.html), Cornell actually has a relatively low suicide rate over the past few years; but this recent spate is definitely unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/50 "2010-03-18T17:57:32Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > According to [this CNN story](http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/cornell.suicides/index.html), Cornell actually has a relatively low suicide rate over the past few years; but this recent spate is definitely unusual. Thanks for the link, it’s helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/51 "2010-03-18T18:04:20Z")
> [@indian](#): > > Are there any statistics into how many of these are due to failure to perform academically ? Like failing /poor grades in exams ? > > Also how did they get into cornell , if they are not academically brilliant ? Being academically brilliant does not have any bearing on whether you’ll become depressed, how you cope with stress, etc. For many (me included all those years ago!), Cornell is their first taste of being among their academic peers. You go from being an extraordinary whiz in high school to being just average, because you’re suddenly surrounded by men and women with comparable intellectual skills. It’s a hard lesson sometimes, to no longer be able to count on being the smartest kid in every room. I had a crisis of wondering why I suddenly felt so average - average felt very inadequate to me. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/52 "2010-03-18T18:14:28Z")
Also don’t forget that most of these kids (I’m almost 40, I can call them kids) are still adolescents and emotionally maturing. They don’t have the wisdom and life experience to see that what looks like the end of the world now is not as bad as it seems, and that they can and will go on to be successful adults - despite that D on their chem prelim. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/53 "2010-03-19T16:09:33Z")
> [@indian](#): > > Are there any statistics into how many of these are due to failure to perform academically ? Like failing /poor grades in exams ? > > Also how did they get into cornell , if they are not academically brilliant ? Cornell’s a really hard school. It’s something of a sink or swim mentality. The rumor when I was there was that when you got in to Harvard or Yale, the hard part was over – not that you could coast, but things were designed to ensure you did at least OK. That was not the case on the Hill. And as **Motorgirl** says, it’s tough going from being the smartest kid you ever met to not appreciably smarter than most. (Although there were certainly a few dunderheads there, as there are everywhere.) When I was there there were two jumpers that I can recall. One was a grad student whose problems were not academic, and another was about to be arrested for stealing a bunch of equipment from his job at the computer center. (He – I shit you not – landed on a raccoon and survived, although IIRC he was at least partially paralyzed.) –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/54 "2010-03-19T16:11:48Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > He – I shit you not – landed on a raccoon and survived, although IIRC he was at least partially paralyzed. Maybe I shouldn’t be laughing at attempted suicide, but I am. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/55 "2010-03-19T16:13:37Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > (He – I shit you not – landed on a raccoon and survived, although IIRC he was at least partially paralyzed.) > > –Cliffy I remember that! Or maybe I remember hearing about it. I was there 88-92. You? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442/56 "2010-03-20T01:21:19Z")
I heard on NPR yesterday that there have been 6 suicides at Cornell this academic year. I also heard from a prof at (I think) NWU, that Cornell has one of the best suicide prevention programs in the country for college campuses. He said that Cornell’s suicide rate is usually less than other campuses, but that their cases get more publicity due to the dramatic er, method. The school is considering putting up higher fences at the gorges. The story was on Morning Edition 3/18. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-keep-killing-themselves-at-my-school/532442.md?page=2)