Sad...

I heard this on the radio this morning. It just seemed so sad to me that someone so young would take such a drastic action. (Dallas Morning-News, registration may be required)

A 12-year-old girl at an Addison private school was found dead in a campus restroom Wednesday from what police described as a self-inflicted injury.

About 3:10 p.m., police and rescue personnel responded to the Greenhill School in the 4100 block of Spring Valley Road after someone called 911 to report an unconscious person in a restroom.

Addison police Officer Brad Freis said the first officers who arrived found a middle school student with what they described as a self-inflicted injury. Police declined to say whether the girl had a weapon.

I've always been conflicted about suicide. My personal values and beliefs tell me that it's a decision that adults can make for themselves. As self-owners, we're ultimately in charge of ourselves and we can control our final disposition. Despite that, though, like all other choices, there are consequences to it. The problem is that the person who makes the choice is not (usually) going to face them. Having known a girl whose mother killed herself when we were in elementary school, I saw just how irresponsible that choice was. If people were to consider the destruction and pain that they were going to leave behind, they'd realize that it's just not the right choice.

Of course, none of this applies with children. It just saddens me to think about it. This poor girl must have thought that things were never going to get better (whatever they were). It's unfortunately that no one was able to intercept her before she made such a horrible and irreversible decision.

Posted by Aubrey at April 17, 2003 10:04 AM