Suffolk student falls to death in apparent suicide
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The death of a Suffolk University student who jumped from the 11th floor of a campus building and the suicide of a Yale student last week have renewed longstanding concerns about mental illness among college students and prompted calls for heightened awareness of often subtle signs of distress.
“We don’t need to wait until the flags are all red,’’ said Alison Malmon, executive director of Active Minds, a national group seeking to increase students’ awareness of mental health issues.
“There doesn’t need to be a threshold to cross to reach out to someone,’’ Malmon said. “If they seem to be struggling just a bit, go talk to them.’’
Eric Christo, a 22-year-old senior finance major at Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University, had made the dean’s list and was expected to graduate in May.
About 9:30 Thursday evening, awitness who saw Christo falling called 911. Christo’s personal effects were recovered on the 11th floor overlooking the street, law enforcement officials said. There were no signs of a struggle, and a police report describes his death as a suicide.
Very sad. Obviously with any suicide (with the possible exception of end-of-life decisions by the very ill or very old) the underlying cause is almost certainly depression, but I can't help noting that the prospect of graduation, which has always been more stressful than usually acknowledged, is especially stressful in the current economic climate. Still, I'd guess that the long-term prospects for finance majors are pretty good, even if the immediate lifestyle may not be quite what they imagined when they declared a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteAll too common and very sad. There was another death last week where a student jumped from the stadium at the University of Florida.
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