<p>Eyewitness News is told the teenager fell from the roof of Dalton School, located at 108 East 89th Street on the Upper East Side.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. </p>
<p>To me the reason to post this is the concern that IF this young man committed suicide out of inability to deal with college app pressure it is to remind us all to be grateful for what we have and to try to be sensitive to the pressure that not only our own children, but those in our community face.</p>
<p>It’s a tragedy. And there are too many of these. A friend of my D’s in college in NYC, who graduated last May committed suicide last week. (not off a roof)</p>
<p>Agree that we as parents need to be sensitive to how much pressure we are SEEN to exert (and I say “seen” because what I call “reminders”, my D may see as “pressure”).</p>
<p>Every time I watch Gossip Girl I’m reminded the NYC private school population has a particularly horrendous set of social issues. Great schools but so many issues cause so much angst.</p>
<p>Let’s try to remember that it is too early to claim it was suicide, though it may be. Let’s also not speculate as to the reasons. It may have nothing to do with being in prep school, parental pressures, college admissions, etc. No matter the setting, there are teens who are grapping with emotional issues such as depression and what not, and suicide can happen anywhere. As to reasons this teen or any teen chose this act (if indeed this is a suicide), is speculation, particularly if one doesn’t know the person. </p>
<p>In any case, the ending of a life so young and in such a tragic way, is cause for sorrow and concern.</p>
<p>Surely we can’t know what the situation is here.</p>
<p>As for the NYC private school scene, I’m not saying it’s any worse than many, just different. And to be honest, I have no knowledge of the NYC public school scene. </p>
<p>What you do find in NY private schools are a lot of kids with parents with way more money than time. I worked part time for many years and was often the only mother in a sea of nannies. </p>
<p>As they get older you have kids with little supervision, lots of money and a tremendous amount of sophistication that impacts what they do with it.</p>
<p>I grew up in a lower middle class bedroom community of NYC and went to public school. My kids grew up in the Manhattan private school community. I see a great difference between the problems of my youth and the problems and pressures kids face today - but my friends’ and relatives’ kids in the suburbs and in other states all face the same issues we see in NYC private AND public schools today. All kids who are in competitive high school environments feel enormous pressure, which often leads to emotional, social and other problems.</p>
<p>The difference I see, Juniper, has to do with the city itself. We tried Westchester for a couple of years and saw probably equal, but very different problems. In the city bars let kids in, drug dealers are everywhere, the clubs are a big draw. Kids in the burbs were not as jaded and city sophisticated.</p>
<p>Looks like my decision never to live in NYC was a good one. For these and many other QOL issues. Chicago had many of the benefits and far fewer of the drawbacks.</p>
<p>there was an article last week in SU’s Daily Orange newspaper re: the unusually high correlation between teenage suicide and bipolar disorder(both diagnosed and undiagnosed)…</p>
<p>this is so heartbreaking for all involved…D1 is still recovering from a close friend’s still unexplainable suicide in the fall…</p>