MOTHER SEARCHES FOR ANSWERS TO SUICIDE

RIDGEFIELD -- When Claudia Lucisano remembers her son, Joey, she takes
pride in his clean-cut demeanor. She is heartened by "all his friends'
parents" commenting on his good manners when they call. She has
received "hundreds" of letters from people in the community who knew
Joey and from young people who moved away and remembered him as a good
friend.

Now, two months after his suicide on Nov. 14, following a fight with
his parents over marijuana leaves found in his backpack, Lucisano
still cannot believe that her son meant to commit suicide.

She searches for answers to what happened that night when the
17-year-old was found hanging in a closet in his bedroom.

Joseph "Joey" Lucisano's death devastated his family, but it also
shook the Ridgefield community and has prompted greater vigilance in
the high school. A police patrol officer will be assigned to the
school next month and officials are planning to bring Zeus, a
drug-sniffing police dog, to the halls of Ridgefield High.

Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Freeston called Joey's death a
"centering event for our community."

Also In response to Joey's death, Ridgefield High School hosted a
panel of specialists answering parents' questions on teen depression
and how to help students deal with the aftermath of the teen's suicide.

The discussion on depression ended up puzzling Lucisano,
though.

"We went to the panel discussion the high school had (in November) and
the symptoms of teen depression they were describing didn't fit Joey's
behavior," Lucisano said. "He was a well-adjusted boy."

No suicide note was found.

Lucisano remembers her son as being "funny all the time." He loved his
little sister, Amy, 9, and would meet her at the school bus when she
came home from school and would help her with her homework. He missed
his older brother, Frank, who was away at college.

"This is a very loving family," Lucisano said. "I have no guilt that I
failed my child."

Joey was a member of the National Honor Society. He attended Tae Kwon
Do classes three times a week. Although he had turned 17 in November,
he didn't have a driver's license and his father, Frank Lucisano,
would drive him to lessons. His father also drove Joey and his friends
to the movies, often going into the show with the boys, Lucisano said.

The family, which moved from New York state to Ridgefield in 1994, are
parishioners of St. Mary's Catholic Church where Joey often went to
early Mass with his father before going out for breakfast.

"Joey had an 11 p.m. curfew on weekends and he was often home before
that time," Claudia Lucisano said. "He wasn't the kind of kid who hung
out on the streets or in parking lots."

Lucisano had been picking her son up after school, following an
incident last school year when he got off the school bus intoxicated.
She was taking action to make sure such an incident did not occur again.

"Last year Joey got off the school bus staggering drunk," Lucisano
said. "He said kids keep liquor in the bathroom and peer pressure is
to take a shot."

Lucisano was not happy with the school's handling of that situation
and said she and her husband were not kept abreast of how the students
who brought the alcohol to the school were disciplined, even though
the parents reported the incident.

Interim Principal Jeff Jaslow said in early December that the
situation was taken "very seriously." He said he could not discuss the
discipline of students because of state privacy laws."Needless to say,
we are very concerned with the situation. I like to think we are
aggressive with any substance abuse that occurs on school grounds,"
Jaslow said. "Our greatest concern is the well being of the kids. We
won't be happy until substance abuse is at level zero."

Lucisano said she "knows that Joey got the marijuana at school" the
day they fought. He had been sent to his room. He was grounded and his
mother had taken his cell phone from him. Joey went into his bedroom
and locked the door at approximately 6:30 p.m., according to a police
report.

When she felt he had been given enough time to "cool off," Lucisano
went to Joey's room and found his door locked. Frank Lucisano forced
open the locked door at 9:15 p.m., and found his son dead hanging in
the closet, according to the police report. The State Medical Examiner
said the cause of death was suicide by hanging. No alcohol or drugs,
except caffeine, were found in his system during the autopsy, the
police report said."I will use my son's death for a wake-up call,"
said Lucisano, who, with her husband, has spoken to the members of
Ridgefield's Coalition Against Substance Abuse to urge them to take
strong action to end the availability of alcohol and illegal
substances for children.

"I'm doing as well as a parent can who has gone through this,"
Lucisano said. "I don't think my husband and I will ever heal from
this."

The Lucisano family is going to grief counseling weekly and Claudia
Lucisano takes solace in her surviving children.

Her daughter, Amy, and she spend time together in Joey's
room.

"We lay on his bed and hold hands and she'll say 'don't you feel him
(Joey) hugging us?'" Lucisano said Friday. "Amy's the bright sunshine
here. She told me she believes God took Joey that day because he was
so good God wanted him with him."