Another NY school suicide, this time upstate

May 8, 1:49 PMNY Schools ExaminerKathleen Byrne

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Schools Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Yearbook photo of suicide victim.

A senior at Canandaigua Academy in Ontario County took his life with a sawed off shotgun on Tuesday in a school bathroom. Two Molotov cocktails and 30 rounds of ammunition were found in the student’s locker later. The boy had just returned from a four-month suspension for allegedly smoking pot before school.

This is the second student suicide this year at a New York school. In February, a 17-year-old junior at Dalton School in Manhattan committed suicide by jumping out of a school window.

Tragically, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people 15 to 24 years old in the U.S.

An article appearing in the Democrat and Chronicle reported that the student’s friends had contacted school officials a week before, warning them about the troubled student. According to a local news broadcast at 13 WHAM, the student was extremely angry and distraught about his suspension, which he thought was too heavy handed for the infraction.

Police said that the student visited many “Columbine” type Web sites on his computer and that they had uncovered “dark and disturbing” drawings by the 17 year old. No suicide note was found.