St James High feels more pain
Published:Monday | April 11, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Sheena Gayle, Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Three child suicides within a week in western Jamaica have left communities devastated and, according to child and family therapist Dr Beverley Scott, this is too much for children thinking this is their only way out of problems at home.
An unfinished wooden house in Hendon, Norwood, in Montego Bay, St James, yesterday told the horrific story of 14-year-old Shaquilla 'Angel' Calame, of St James High School, who hanged herself with a piece of rope after a heated argument with her mother over money she allegedly stole.
"Children who commit suicide think that this is their best way out of their problems. We have to change the way children think because many of them are exposed to violent conflicts at home and so they do not know how to rationalise their thoughts and actions and they think killing themselves is the only way out," Scott lamented with The Gleaner.
Calame was the second female student from St James High to kill herself over the past week. The first was 14-year-old Annalise Arthurs who used an electric cord to end her own life. Scott, who is also the executive director of the Family and Parenting Centre, sees this as a worrying trend that must not be taken likely by other parents and children.
Just over a week ago, 15-year-old Godfrey Stewart High student Tia Murray, of Barracks Road in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, also took her own life.
"What you need to understand is that children are not old enough to empathise, so instead they sympathise with the death of someone they know. This is a recipe for depression when things like this happens and it is important to intervene and in a meaningful way to ensure that your child understands that this is not the way to go in dealing with issues in life," the child therapist stressed.
Scott said she would be visiting the St James school today.