<p><a href=“New York student Omotayo Adeoye 'caught cheating on exam jumps to death' | Daily Mail Online”>New York student Omotayo Adeoye 'caught cheating on exam jumps to death' | Daily Mail Online;
<p>Too sad and really hard to understand.</p>
<p>It’s reminiscent of this story from 2010, about a gifted NYC student who killed himself by jumping from a window at the Dalton School after being accused of cheating: <a href=“Teddy Graubard: Suicide at Dalton -- New York Magazine - Nymag”>http://nymag.com/news/features/66285/</a> The reporting is excellent. This was the first time I read a description of impulsive suicide which, it seems to me, may account for a good number of suicides among the young. </p>
<p>A tragedy in both cases.</p>
<p>it is just sad. Those photos show a girl with a sense of humor. </p>
<p>Paper more or less made the girl a victim and put the death on the teacher. Good to see a teacher actually catching and punishing cheaters. Cheating is a complete pervasive epidemic at my daughter’s school and nobody cares. Teachers, students and admins clearly view it as a win win and it’s disgusting.</p>
<p>I’m not in favor of cheating, but I think the reported teacher’s action may not have been an example of the best judgement. I’m sure if she could turn back the clock, she would have handled it differently. I don’t think it is the teacher’s fault, but there may be better methods available to curb cheating. </p>
<p>There seems to be more to this very sad story. It’s also the 14th suicide in the school system this year. So now they are lifting the freeze on guidance counselors. People knew this girl was fragile, the school and teachers should have also known.</p>
<p><a href=“Suicide student grew sullen and ran away from home”>http://nypost.com/2014/06/01/suicide-student-grew-sullen-and-ran-away-from-home/</a></p>
<p>Just horrible. She had her whole life ahead of her. </p>
<p>I agree. Yelling & screaming on the part of the teacher was not the answer. </p>
<p>I feel horrible for the family, of course, but I feel bad for the teacher. Words of frustration should not doom her career. I completely understand her frustration. Cheating (especially among talented students) seems to be rampant. I just wish the poor woman could have seen that her future was not destroyed by this exchange. </p>
<p>Although it is a tragedy that this girl and 13 other NYC high school students committed suicide this year, it should be noted that there are 1.1 million NYC public school students. I couldn’t put my finger on the number of high school students, but arithmetic puts it at more than 100,000 students. So that would be a suicide rate of 0.00014. I don’t know what the suicide rate for teenagers is nationwide–any ideas?</p>
<p>Also, the NY Post is not known for totally objective journalism. And I didn’t see in the article how much the school was aware of this girl’s emotional problems. Even if the school administration was aware, it doesn’t mean that the teacher knew. The school is highly selective, an excellent high school.</p>
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<p>From the other article posted it seems that the mother may have been aware after she disappeared for 3 days. The neighbors even noticed that she seemed depressed,. I would hope that the parents talked to the school about this.
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<p>Based on that, whether the teacher yelled, or had a private conversation, wouldn’t seem to have made much of a difference, especially if the teacher reported her for cheating and failed her on that test.</p>
<p>The first thought that a teacher with 34 kids in her class (standard NYC high school class size at very selective public high schools) who catches a student cheating during an exam may not be, “oh the poor thing, she must be depressed.”</p>
<p>Suicide is the third cause of death in young people 13-20 yrs old.
Its unconscionable that a high school wouldn’t have counselors.</p>
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[quote]
Meanwhile, schools’ safety net for troubled youths is shrinking. The number of social workers, guidance counselors and psychologists assigned to public schools has fallen 7 percent since 2008, going from 5,676 to about 5,300, according to DOE data.*</p>
<p><a href=“35 schoolkids committed suicide in the last 3 years”>http://nypost.com/2014/03/30/students-suicides-on-the-rise-as-number-of-counsellors-dips/</a></p>
<p>I think being caught cheating was just the straw that broke the camels back. There must have been something else going on, losing control of ones impulses in such a horrible way can be an indicator of serious mental health issues. The cheating itself might have also been an impulsive and desperate act.</p>
<p>There is no excuse for the unprofessional behavior of the teacher. Everyone in the room did not need to know that there was a problem with this girl. There should be a proper procedure that a teacher is supposed to follow in such a circumstance. That doesn’t mean that the teacher is responsible for the suicide, but it shows her to be completely insensitive to youth and unsuited for the position. This wasn’t a reform school where the students are a step away from jail and acting out all the time. It is portrayed as a good school. If there is no proper procedure in place, then the school system has a problem as well.</p>
<p>Well, that’s a little (alot) hard on the teacher. Admonishing kids for cheating is not unusual. Even publicly. Isn’t that how it usually happens? It should be embarrassing to be caught cheating. Embarrassment should not cause suicide. What is going on with these kids? </p>
<p>I don’t know about the yelling, but it seems to me that it would be appropriate to immediately remove a kid from a test if she was found to be cheating.</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4, this does not mean that there is a high school in NYC without a social worker, guidance counselor, or social worker, just that the total number of these positions was reduced. I don’t think there is any high school in the city without at least a guidance counselor. Many of the high schools in the city are newly formed small schools housed in groups in large high school buildings where the original large high school was closed.</p>
<p>Moreover, there is a new mayor as of January 1 and a new schools chancellor. The mayor’s son goes to my daughter’s public high school and his daughter graduated from a public high school and the chancellor was a public school teacher, principal and parent, and is now a public school grandparent. Although for sure there are fiscal constraints and Rome wasn’t built in a day, I think the system is headed in the right direction, with less of a top-down style of management with huge sums spent on consultants and confrontational non-engagement with educational professionals within the system and more creative collaberation with parents, teachers and other professionals about how to manage limited resources for the best possible outcome for kids.</p>
<p>Reducing support staff for students is heading in the right direction?</p>
<p>I have often heard teens describe someone as “yelling” at them when in fact the person was not “yelling” by any objective standard, but perhaps speaking severely. I wouldn’t be too quick to accept that description.</p>
<p>@Consolation </p>
<p>So true. My own DD has accused me of yelling when I wasn’t. Yes, my voice was raised a bit and speaking very curtly. Admonishing her behavior. But NOT yelling. </p>