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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

I have a theory I'd propose:

The biggest cause of teen suicide is essentially feeling rejected in some way by your peers: being bullied, a breakup, "mean girl" switches from former friends, etc. When schools closed, the immediate pressure of any of these negative social interactions went to the background (or at least simmered on social media). When schools reopened, kids tried to figure out where they fit back in the "totem pole" of adolescent social hierarchy, and the rise in suicides is a result of kids not figuring out where they fit in when they went back.

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Anecdotally:

I was bullied a lot in school. When I became avoidant and just stayed at home, I was a lot happier because I didn't have those stressors.

I concur. Perhaps the break from schools opened their eyes to the notion that life didn’t have to be the total hell that it is for a lot of young kids and then being forced back was too much to handle, on top of all of the other stuff everyone has been struggling with this last year.

Agreed. Honestly, there are many times I've been very thankful that I grew up in an age before social media. At least when I went home the torment would stop and I could relax somewhat. I think kids who are bullied today have it so much worse with the ever presence of cellphones and the internet.

Public school was probably the most miserable part of my life, especially as one of the only asians in a black and white heavy school district. The few years my parents afforded private school to get me away from the violence was only a little better. Moving to Southern California where the schools had significantly more asians was a big improvement.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of public schooling and the one size fits all approach

Same here.

I spent most of my time in front of TV and PC until I was 17.

The only thing that changed was getting Internet on the PC when I was 15. So, I could finally talk with people that had something in common with me.

I was bullied a lot in school and then I quit going to school and started staying home and never felt worse in my life.

> a result of kids not figuring out where they fit in

or a result of kids figuring out where they fit in and not liking it

This is my theory too. A friend of me noted that one positive thing about lock-down is the complete lack of FOMO (fear of missing out). Which seems particularly important at that age.

There are likely a lot of factors powering the correlation in the article. Absence of school social pressures could be one. Better access to your family as a support network and subsequent loss could be another. Since it is morally questionable to do experiments to isolate the level of contribution we'll likely never know.

I think it's premature to dismiss the suggestion that school closings are the cause. Suicide is a complex topic, and the pandemic introduced a lot of disruptions not immediately felt. The suicide attempts could very well be a delayed effect, as proposed by the parent comment.

Perhaps, but the desired effect (reduced suicides) was clearly visible during the lockdown. SOMETHING(S) changed that helped more of our children stick around for at least a little bit longer. So what?

Whatever the cause, I'm willing to forgo scientific correctness to say what was obvious before the pandemic: OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE TERRIBLE FOR YOUR HEALTH

They are a bit like modern day prisons, are they not?

Expensive modern day prisons.

A bit? Most schools look like and feel almost exactly like prisons. Only the most rich private schools look different.

Are those causes or just symptoms of a society in which parents and schools are inadequately preparing the youth for emotional trauma, how to handle it, and how to not be a sociopath?

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