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Another Teen Suicide Today & The Secret of Liberal Marin
Melanie Nathan 10-11-10
BUT there is a secret-
San Rafael, California, (Marin County) -At 7.30 am this morning the horror of yet another teen suicide eclipsed the otherwise magnificence of a Marin County morning. It happened in a school district where people strive to place their children; one of the best in California, located in the wealthiest and most liberal of Counties in the USA, home to Barbara Boxer, Robin Williams and Sean Penn. This County may find itself bearing witness to an ugly secret – an undercurrent ever pervasive, even here in Utopia.
This is a County thick with racism and lack of diversity and I speak qualified, as Vice President of Fair Housing of Marin and also as a Commissioner on the Marin Human Rights Commission. While it cannot be said for all, there is an undercurrent that prevails.
Principals in some schools are refusing to have LGBT issues discussed in their schools, even to teachers who are insensitive to the unbridled bigotry that escapes lips, unnoticed, I say this because I know – I have middle school daughter who age 13 was the brunt of a teacher’s ignorant expression in class.
Today Miller Creek Middle School lost a 13 year old boy, to an apparent suicide. This is a school renowned for its high standard of education and also one that has provided certain sensitivity training to staff and students.
We have no name nor any official reason for a suicide. But this is MY County and a boy my daughter’s age died by his (own) hand!
I ask truly, is this his own hand? We all have a part in the death of a child when we fail to provide safe and embracing environments for everyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or whatever it is that may be the cause of such despair.
Today the school worked wit sheriff’s deputies, a school psychologist and counselors to devise a plan for telling students that the boy had apparently committed suicide.
Diane McGuinness, a spokesperson, said preparations were under way for breaking the news to the children. “Anything we can do right now we are putting into place,” McGuinness said. The principal informed reporters that the family of the boy and the students are the district’s top priority.
melanie nathan
natthan@privatecourts.com
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5 Responses to Another Teen Suicide Today & The Secret of Liberal Marin
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Nic Shepard
February 1, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Any time a child commits suicide every effort must be made to be sure it was not perpetuated by experiences outside the home – either in school or general public life. The society that surrounds the child must be made welcoming to all children with no exceptions.
Still, this article did not say why they think he did this. Did he suffer gay/racists harassment? Was there something going on in his home life that fed this? Does anyone know what happened here?
Though I am fully aware that being gay is the number 1 reason kids take their own life, I personally survived an attempt at 16 for this reason, I hesitate to lay the blame anywhere until we know why for sure. Being repeatedly beaten/raped by a family member can cause the same thing.
Janice
October 22, 2010 at 10:00 am
I think that’s it in a nutshell…………you can’t make a judgement based on just one or two personal experiences. If you want to know what it’s like for someone else, and some don’t, then get out there and find out.
Anonymous
October 21, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Although there is an apparent lack of diversity in Marin County, I do not believe that it is a county “thick with racism.” As someone who has gone through the Marin County public school system, I can attest that I have seen very little racism; Marin County is a very liberal area and this is one of the last places I could see someone being teased or tormented for being of a certain race or sexual preference. Maybe the author of this article is seeing something I have not, but I would love to raise my children in Marin County.
Melanie Nathan
October 21, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Dear Anonymous; If you have yet to join a Board for a non profit in Marin I highly recommend the experience. Try Fair Housing of Marin. There you will see how people who own buildings in Marin or houses discriminate – based on racism and sexual orientation, gender, gender identity etc. Then if you know anyone in banking in Marin – ask if they have LGBT staff/ employees – chances are they have many but the employee is deeply closeted at work! Perhaps even the Managers dare not come out! Also my friend do you think that lack of diversity is based on nothing? Juts over the bay – the East Bay – there is an extraordinarily diverse community- so it is not as if the BAY area fails in diversity. AH huh, then come and sit at Human Rights Commission meeting – every Month on second Tues eve- and here the complaints about racial profiling….. Ah- and then go into a bank or a hospital and if there is a person of color ask them where they live and why they work but do not live in Marin. You may get some insight into why this is the whitest county in the Bay Area….
Bridgette P. LaVictoire
October 12, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Craigsanon,
First of all, this is a private website and we have every right to publish any comments that we so wish. The author of this article did not delete your posts. I did, as is my right. Claiming that this is about Freedom of Speech only shows me that I am absolutely correct in deleting your comments. Continuing to lambaste the author of this post with rude comments will get you banned from commenting permanently.
Complaining about the fact that it was deleted also gets your post deleted. It is not completely gone. It is up to the author if she would like to post it, but I have every right to trash anything that I do not approve of. And, just so you know, it was not until just recently that she knew about your comments. They are first held to be screened, and then, if we so choose, they are either approved, trashed or spammed.