What a tragic and heavy section Chapters 21-25 were.  Part One of River’s Rowan was really about the relationships between the youth and understanding the high school’s culture. I currently teach students Creative Writing. Three days a week, for six weeks, I’m with these kids.  While doing the research for this book,  I quizzed some of the kids I was working with at the time on a variety of topics including bullying and suicide ideation.  They had the option of responding anonymously to help them feel freedom to speak freely.  In the year it took me to write this book + the eight months or so to research it, I quizzed nearly 200 kids.  92% said bullying was present in school — and that 60% of the bullying took place through some online format.  27% of the 200 stated they’ve thought about, or actively engaged in, some form of intentional self harm;  15% of the 27% said that the self harm was a direct result of bullying. Suicide is the third leading cause of death amongst high school students in the United States. The national averages mirror what I found in my small research study.  Clearly, there’s an epidemic of bullying leading to hopelessness amongst today’s youth.  What goes on at Covenant High is a fictional, but statistically accurate, picture of bullying and the consequences of it.  

Last week, we talked about defense mechanisms and compared the defense mechanisms of these characters to Taya in Broken. In this section, we see River’s defense mechanism:  as he finally understands that Brielle doesn’t intend to get back with him, he becomes angry and lashes out against her.  When she posts about him, anger is his go-to reaction  Even in his suicide note to the school, he ends it by saying, “Let this cause shockwaves.”  More of you have taken to e-mailing one-on-one thoughts and a few of you gave permission for me to share some of the things you shared:  I am thankful for that.  Some stories included things like, My defense mechanism has always been to withdrawl.  I just go  silent as a tombstone.  I think I’m hoping someone will care enough to ask what’s wrong and I don’t know what kind of defense I have.  I guess that’s something I need to work on, though, because people don’t like being around me when I’m hurting. And one of the most “close to home” for me was I feel like I protect myself just by not putting myself in situations where I could be hurt.  It makes it hard sometimes because I get pretty lonely this way but I’m safe and that matters the most.  It takes a lot of courage to share these things with someone you don’t really know.  Thank you for trusting me with your stories.  They matter.  You matter.  And what you shared was impactful to me because it reminded me that we’re not alone:  we all struggle with knowing how to respond to pain.  

There’s an interesting parallel to current national statistics to Sage’s story and River’s. Let’s take a look at the Center for Disease Control’s most recent study regarding high school students’ ideation and attempts on suicide.  The first table shows that the prevalance of those seriously considering suicide increased dramatically in females by almost 6%.  In males, however, the percentage of those considering suicide stayed roughly the same.  

Chart Two shows that females showed a significant increase in the prevalance of those who actually had a suicide plan.  Amongst females, this group increased by nearly 4% from 2019 to 2021.  However, males showed only a 0.3% increase, so stayed roughly the same.  

Chart Three shows that females attempting suicide also increased by 3% while there 0.0% change in males who attempted suicide from 2019 to 2021.

These charts show that while the rates amongst males have stayed pretty consistent, thoughts and attempts of suicide amongst females have been rising. In the story this week, Sage talks about how she’s thought about going to the pond after a heavy rain and laying face down in the water or using a rope to hang herself.  She concludes the thoughts by saying, I never do it. She does, however, self-harm: she throws a razor in the water to prevent herself from using it again.  River, meanwile, hasn’t expressed this ideation until now. While Sage’s catalyst is the abuse of her father, River’s is brought about by the isolation and bullying that’s a direct result of Brielle’s post.  This week’s prompt is two pronged:  first: why do you think there’s the sigifnicant varaince between genders in terms of suicide ideation and attempts – why might females struggled so much more (more than double) than males between 2019 and 2021 – and, secondly, what similarities can you find between Sage and River or Sage and Brielle in terms of what they experience emotionally–can you identify patterns between the teens who have struggled the most in the story that might speak to these statistics?

IT’S YOUR TURN!!! 

Please share your responses in whatever way is most comfortable for you!