Top Silicon Valley High Schools Respond To Rising Suicide Rate [NPR.org]

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Robotics teams, top-notch theater programs, a flock of seniors off to elite universities each year - Palo Alto Senior High School and Henry M. Gunn High Schoolin Silicon Valley are the kinds of schools parents dream about. They're also schools where suicide is unusually common. The suicide rate over the last 10 years is several times the national average. Hanna Rosin reported on the community and the questions it's been struggling with in a new piece in The Atlantic magazine. She started that article describing the aftermath of a suicide that happened last November. The student's name was Cameron Lee.

HANNA ROSIN, BYLINE: He was what would be considered a dangerous suicide in terms of contagion and other people following his lead because he was very well-known. Lots of people would've heard about it very quickly. We live in an age where all the kids had cell phones. So it was quite scary for the school community.

[To listen to this story or read the full transcript, go tohttp://www.npr.org/2015/11/17/456395374/top-silicon-valley-high-schools-respond-to-rising-suicide-rate]

and for the Atlantic article go here: 

http://www.theatlantic.com/mag...ley-suicides/413140/