Massachusetts Study Shows High Suicide Rate for Gay Students

Massachusetts residents are four times more likely to kill themselves than die by homicide, far higher than the national trend, and gay high school students attempt suicide at a particularly high rate, according to the first analysis done of suicide in Massachusetts.

This is an excerpt from an article published in the Boston Globe.

By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff

Massachusetts residents are four times more likely to kill themselves than die by homicide, far higher than the national trend, and gay high school students attempt suicide at a particularly high rate, according to the first analysis done of suicide in Massachusetts.

The Department of Public Health study, to be released in May, found that there were 503 suicides and 123 homicides in Massachusetts in 1998, the most recent year with data available.

State officials say the suicide-murder ratio probably hasn't changed since then; if anything, the number of suicides may be higher because they are considered underreported by 20 percent to 30 percent.

Nationwide, there were about 30,000 suicides and 18,000 homicides in 1998, according to the data.

The study also found that about 10 percent of Massachusetts high school students attempted suicide, according to a survey of about 4,000 students in 1997. Broken down by sexual orientation, about 40 percent of gay and bisexual students attempted suicide, compared to about 10 percent of their heterosexual peers.

Ellen Connorton, coordinator of violence prevention and intentional injury at DPH, said gay students are not considered predisposed to suicide.

''They are no more mentally unstable than other students, but they are susceptible to victimization by their peers,'' Connorton said.

The data came as a shock to members of the Norfolk County Anti-Crime Council, who were given a preview of the numbers yesterday. Connorton, who made the presentation, noted that Massachusetts does not allot funds for general suicide prevention.

The state did appropriate $750,000 last year toward preventing suicides among gay teenagers. The Department of Public Health has since decided to spend the funds on outreach to all students, said Paul Jacobsen, the agency's deputy commissioner.

While acknowledging that gay students attempt suicide at a higher rate than their peers, Jacobsen said that funding should not be limited to one group. ''It's such an important issue, it really needs to be integrated into all youth programs,'' said Jacobsen.

He said these efforts -- which include preventing teen violence and improving school health programs -- helped lower the suicide rate among 15-to-19-year-olds in Massachusetts. That rate, 6.6 per 100,000, is the third-lowest in the nation.

Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said his office is considering plans to fund suicide-prevention programs. ''I feel some guilt about whether we should do more,'' Keating said. '' We need to build a constituency for suicide prevention.''

To develop prevention programs, Connorton said, schools and communities first must assess the extent of the problem, then identify causes and develop response measures.

But some council members said that many school officials and parents find the subject too personal and inexplicable to discuss in-depth.

Kim Kates of Samaritans of Boston, told of how she recently offered to help students at Boston Latin School cope with the death of a senior there last month. The manner of death has not been classified, but Boston school officials and some Boston Latin students believe it was a suicide.Kates said Boston Latin officials rebuffed her and have not labeled the death a suicide. ''I was really frustrated,'' Kates said, ''because when you keep something a secret, you're saying this isn't normal, we don't want to look at it. And that needs to change.''

Jim Montague, director of guidance and support services at Boston Latin, said yesterday that the school provided its own counseling for students, dealing with their grief as well as deeper feelings about suicide and depression.

The student's family has asked for privacy and the death has not been confirmed as a suicide, he said.Connorton suggested several steps to prevent suicide, including:better training for school counselors and those who work with the elderly; adding trigger locks to guns and special jambs to windows; selling ''smart guns''; and redesigning bridges to make jumping from them more difficult. She noted that gun ownership has not been shown to lead to suicide. Yet men used firearms to kill themselves more than any other method except suffocation, the DPH report found.

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