Palo Alto train death opens fresh wound in a community searching for solutions

[KamaAina]

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_27679274/palo-alto-train-death-opens-fresh-wound-community

At least 94 times in the past three years, troubled souls have sought to end their lives on Caltrain's tracks -- and were seen, stopped and saved.

But in Monday morning's darkness, a 15-year-old Palo Alto High School sophomore slipped through undetected, breaking the hearts of a community that is desperately trying to stop needless deaths.

It was the eighth death on the Caltrain tracks already this year, after 10 all of last year. And it opened a fresh wound in Palo Alto, where community and school leaders are publicly grappling with ways their high-achieving schools can identify mental illness and ease the pressure on over-stressed teens....

But Palo Alto has made it a mission to bring about change, and the very life of the school district has been altered in ways large and small. Social studies classes start with meditation. Teachers and staff have been taught to help identify teens struggling with depression or in distress. The district is accelerating construction of a student wellness center at Gunn High School, where students can talk to counselors and mental health professionals and nutritionists to decompress.

You might be in California if... "social studies classes start with meditation."

[daredtowork]

1. With Parents Thinking Harvard

is the only school that counts, just getting a B+ might be enough for a teen to think hurling themselves in front of a train is their only option.

The sad thing is this pressure tends to inflate grades in already privileged areas, which further disenfranchises kids in areas where teachers will grade on a normal scale - and only one, if any, will be considered ivy league material.

[KamaAina]

2. Silly parents. Yale also counts.

Y'85 here.

And isn't there some school right near Palo Alto?

[daredtowork]

3. Princeton is also acceptable for slackers.

With all those students from China hiring consulting agencies to get in from the outside - and American universities eager for students who are going to pay "full freight" on the inside...the competition is getting even more fierce!