Outside the Beltway

Second Parkland Shooting Survivor Commits Suicide

A male sophomore makes two suicides in less than a week.

James Joyner · Sunday, March 24, 2019 · 2 comments

Miami Herald (“Second Parkland shooting survivor kills himself, police confirm“):

A second Parkland shooting survivor has killed himself, Coral Springs police confirmed on Sunday.

Investigators told the Miami Herald that a current Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student died in “an apparent suicide” on Saturday night.

Police are still investigating.

Though police could not confirm the age of the student, Coral Springs police spokesman Tyler Reik said the student was a juvenile. Sources say the student was a male sophomore. His name has not been released.

The death comes just about a week after a recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate, Sydney Aiello, took her own life after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[…]

Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Petty, a 14-year-old freshman who was one of 17 people murdered on Feb. 14. 2018, told the Miami Herald the student who died Saturday also died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Petty founded a suicide prevention foundation called the Walk Up Foundation after his daughter’s death. He said “the issue of suicide needs to be talked about.”

“This is another tragic example,” Petty said, who has partnered with Columbia University for his Foundation.

“When you look at Columbine as an example, almost just as many students killed themselves after the fact than in the actual shooting. That needs to change,” he said. “We need to get them the help they need.”

Sad news, indeed.

Details are too scant to make judgments. It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that the student in question was also suffering from post-traumatic stress. It’s also possible that Aiello’s suicide inspired this one. And, of course, it’s possible that there were other circumstances in the boy’s life unrelated to the shootings.

Regardless, yet more tragedy on top of tragedy.