DEATH HAS HOCKEY, SCHOOLS IN SHOCK

School superintendent says some media making assumptions about stress of
minor hockey

Teammates, students and teachers have been blindsided by the death of a
popular 15-year-old, who apparently took his own life Sunday in Surrey.

The teen was a member of the Kelowna midget AA team that travelled to the
Lower Mainland for an exhibition game and to watch a Canucks game.

After the exhibition game Saturday, the teen and another player were
reportedly caught with marijuana and were told it could result in
suspension from the team.

At 12:30 a.m., the coach and the teammate found the boy's body hanging in
the hotel bathroom.

"There's shock, disbelief, guilt. People are wondering if there was
something they could have done," said local schools superintendent Ron
Rubadeau.

"They're saying ' we didn't see it coming, we wouldn't have expected him,
we didn't see any signs of depression.' " he said.

The teen was a Grade 10 student at Rutland Senior Secondary, where a letter
was sent home to parents Monday to explain the tragedy and the school
district's response.

As a member of a hockey team, he had friends and teammates throughout Kelowna.

Since minor hockey has no resources to help with grief counselling, the
school district has picked up the task, with counsellors in several schools
in Rutland, the Mission and the Westside.

RSS principal Hugh Gloster started getting information together Sunday
morning said Rubadeau, as soon as he heard about the incident.

News spread quickly.

"People are beating themselves up, saying ' why didn't we see it,' "
Rubadeau said.

The death comes eerily close to another teen suicide in Kelowna.

On Oct. 1, a Constable Neil Bruce Middle School student took his own life,
immediately following a suspension for drug use at school.

There are an average of 17 suicides in Kelowna each year in all age groups
- - and those are just the figures reported.

Experts say there's no easy explanation for suicide, but essentially those
who take their own life often see suicide as the only way to get rid of
their anguish.

"They're not trying to die," explained MacMaster, program co-ordinator of
the Kelowna crisis line. "They're trying to end the pain."

Some media have tried to draw the conclusion that it was the pressures of
minor hockey that triggered this suicide.

The teen was to face a disciplinary hearing this week.

While no one in minor hockey is responding to media inquiries, Rubadeau
said it would be wrong to link the death to the boy's hockey experience.

"Some are trying to draw a straight line from the pressures of minor
hockey, but I'm not sure it's that linear," he said.