LOOKING BACK ON 2002: SUICIDE: CAPITAL NEWS LED WAY IN OPENING UP DISCUSSION

It was early October when the issue of youth suicide suddenly found itself
in an unaccustomed place--the front page of the Capital News.

A 13-year-old boy from Constable Neil Bruce Middle School died by suicide
after being suspended from school for smoking marijuana.

With his parent's permission, the boy was sent home alone where he killed
himself.

Six weeks later, 15-year-old Jason Ricciuti, a promising minor hockey
goalie who attended Rutland senior secondary, also took his own life during
a road trip to the Lower Mainland.

Ricciuti was facing suspension from his hockey team, again for smoking
marijuana.

A little over a week later, another 15-year-old, a student at Kelowna
secondary school died by suicide.

The boy had stormed out of the house after an argument with his mother.

The Capital News faced considerable opposition from the Central Okanagan
School District over our decision to run the first story, the rationale
being that the media does not cover suicide because of the danger of
fueling copycats.

Although most of the media outlets in town knew about the first death, none
except the Capital News chose to report it.

All that changed with the death of Jason Ricciuti, which set off a minor
media feeding frenzy. Major media outlets in the Lower Mainland covered it,
as did all local media.

When the KSS student died a week later, the spate of suicides became a
story in itself taking on a life of its own.

School board chairwoman Moyra Baxter has vowed to increase the amount of
suicide prevention education given to local students.

Patti Ricciuti, the mother of Jason, has made it her mission to force
changes to disciplinary procedures both in amateur hockey and the school
district.

Indeed, Don Cherry intended to use a portion of his Coach's Corner segment
of Hockey Night in Canada to talk about the suicide issue within the hockey
community, and specifically Jason's story.

The Capital News went through considerable soul searching in its decision
to go against the flow. Our code of ethics forbids intruding on personal grief.

At the same time, we believed the disciplinary procedures of both
organizations were flawed.

Even more importantly, we believed the practice of saying nothing about
suicide victims was wrong, both dishonouring the victims and missing out on
an opportunity to educate parents and teens about suicide prevention.