Vampires and Suicide

[deacongray]

I would love more thoughts on this...I fear I wrote it some time ago and with some recent events in my life I wanted to touch on it again. I felt compaled which is not excuse for the lack of editiing but here it is anyway.




Vampires and Suicide.

I read an article some time this week about Vampires and Goth/ Pagans. It mentioned that the rate of suicide is much higher in these groups then any other group except homosexual men between the ages of 16-35. Now you may disagree with the premise of this topic, but consider it anyway if you would.

They mentioned that it was perhaps the dark clothing and subject matter that drove them over the edge, but I think it is something else all together. I don’t see the black clothing and subjects they study as being the cause but rather the result of lives. The make up they wear covers more then their faces, but also allows them to become something totally different and new.
Look at what kind of people we draw here. No offence but its seldom the happy go lucky rich collage kids. More often it’s the misfits, the ones who don’t really belong anywhere else. They find this place, or places like it and make themselves a home here.
However, just because they find a home here and for the most part people who are caring and willing to listen, their issues that drove them toward the darker lifestyles come with them. The depression, the loneliness, the abuse are all key parts of what make people what they are.
AS Vampires the people here understand what it is like not to fit in and how lonely it can be to not be able to live with in the crowd. There has been more then once that we have been cast aside, or even pushed out of the crowd, most of the time we never found a place there to begin with.
One thing about vampires is they are often able to exist in the crowd they are in. Adaptive, they survive regardless of the situation, yet, even when they are like a female friend of mine, sexually alluring, deeply desired, and extremely popular with males and females alike, she never feels totally at home. The rest of just being loved and secure is never in her heart.
This is perhaps a huge part of what she is cannot be comforted by the mortal throng and yet, as it is part of her life, she will always need it in her life.
Others do not have that sensuality, their lives are blacker then white and sometimes the pain of life can seem more then they can bear.
They come here, or to places like this looking for what they cannot have elsewhere, and when they do indeed find it is not here either, (even if it is right before them) they tend to express their pain in anger, and their loneliness in fantasy.


I had a girl at the alternative school where I worked as the school health resource advisor (school Nurse) that is a prime example of what I mean. Her IQ was registered at 150; she was bright, beautiful, and extremely gothic. As time went on I saw her in my office on a regular bases. Always with some minor issue or another. She lingered a great deal, and would sit at times outside the office on my couch waiting to see me, only to pass up every chance to extend her visit longer.
At first I was foolish enough to think she had a crush, but as time went on I realized she was just trying desperately to get away from the crowd. She felt so hollow and alone that she did the only thing she new would work and that allowed her to stay out of trouble, she ask to see the nurse.
I managed to get her to open up a little, and found out how horror able her life had been, how she was torch red and tormented, the details I really don’t think I need to go into.
She found her self being admired by the crowd she was apart of, and yet longed to simply be part of something else, anonymous and one with the others around her. She was a Vampire, they simply weren’t. Later that year, despite the counseling the medications and all the other things the school, her foster parents, and I did, the girl attempted to kill her self.
Her attempt wasn’t the desperate plea for attention, had she but aimed a little higher she would have killed her self for sure.
Things have since changed for that girl, and I will not go into how, but with out someone looking out for her and showing her the path, she would have found success the second time around I have no doubt.
The main message of this post is, we know some of you out there are hurting some of you are lonely some of you even want nothing more then to help out, fit in and become part of the masses. But for a moment if you start to contemplate the end, consider that there is a path and people are willing to show it to you, or help you find your way.

D

The Devil

[lady_sequanna]

[deacongray]

I belive you are totally right.

The number one group as far as suicide is still....wait I forget...its either white males between 18-25 or black males between 18 and 25...white sounds right...

Anyway my focus was on a concept that I believe is true. I have never been a make up wearing goth, more of the liad back dress how I want kind of person. However I have noticed that my counter culture friends have a much higher incident of suicide then my more mainstream friends.

D

[Bholanath]

[from http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010420.html]

Do dentists have the highest suicide rate?
20-Apr-2001


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dear Cecil:

I've always heard that dentists have the highest suicide level of any of the medical professions, but I've never believed it. Is there any truth to it? --Terey Allen, Trenton, Michigan

Cecil replies:

This is one of those dodgy things that "everybody knows." And not just the uninformed public, either--dentists themselves believe it. Since the 1960s dental journals have been carrying articles with headlines like "The Suicidal Professions." Dozens of studies have looked at suicide not only among dentists but among health-care workers in general. With few exceptions, research over the past 40 years has found that dentists (and doctors) take their own lives at a higher-than-average rate. But how much higher? To hear some tell it, you'd better not leave these guys in a room alone.

Dentists' odds of suicide "are 6.64 times greater than the rest of the working age population," writes researcher Steven Stack. "Dentists suffer from relatively low status within the medical profession and have strained relationships with their clients--few people enjoy going to the dentist." One study of Oregon dentists found that they had the highest suicide rate of any group investigated. A California study found that dentists were surpassed only by chemists and pharmacists. Of 22 occupations examined in Washington state, dentists had a suicide rate second only to that of sheepherders and wool workers.

But the sheer diversity of results has to make you suspicious. I mean, which is it--dentists, chemists and pharmacists, or sheepherders and wool workers? (What, the bleating gets to them?) And what about psychiatrists? One school of popular belief holds that they have the highest suicide rate.

Read the studies and you begin to see the problem. Suicide research is inherently a little flaky, in part because suicides are often concealed. Equally important from a statistical standpoint is the problem of small numbers: dentists represent only a small fraction of the total population, only a small fraction of them die in a given year, and only a small fraction of those that die are suicides. So you've got people drawing grand conclusions based on tiny samples. For example, I see where the Swedes think their male dentists have an elevated suicide rate. Number of male-dentist suicides on which this finding is based: 18.

But you aren't reading this column to hear me whine about the crummy data. You want the facts. Coming right up. All we need to do, for any occupation of interest, is (a) find a large, reasonably accurate source of mortality statistics, (b) compute suicides as a percentage of total deaths for said group, and (c) compare that percentage with some benchmark, like so:

PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS DUE TO SUICIDE
U.S. white male population 25 and older (1970): 1.5
U.S. white male dentists (1968-72): 2.0 (85 of 4,190)
U.S. white male medical doctors (1967-72): 3.0 (544 of 17,979)
U.S. white male population 25 and older (1990): 2.0
U.S. white male medical doctors (1984-95): 2.7 (379 of 13,790)

(Sources: Vital Statistics of the United States--1970, National Center for Health Statistics, Table 1-26, "Deaths from 281 Selected Causes, by Age, Race, and Sex: United States, 1970"; death certificates from 31 states, reported in "Mortality of Dentists, 1968 to 1972," Bureau of Economic Research and Statistics, Journal of the American Dental Association, January 1975, pp. 195ff; death reports collected by the American Medical Association, reported in "Suicide by Psychiatrists: A Study of Medical Specialists Among 18,730 Physician Deaths During a Five-Year Period, 1967-72," Rich et al., Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, August 1980, pp. 261ff.; Vital Statistics of the United States--1990, National Center for Health Statistics, Table 1-27, "Deaths from 282 Selected Causes, by 5-Year Age Groups, Race, and Sex: United States--1990"; National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database, reported in "Mortality Rates and Causes Among U.S. Physicians," Frank et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2000.

I know what you're thinking. Percentages! They're so primitive! What about the Poisson distribution, the chi-square test, the multivariate regression analysis? Not to mention the fact that I don't express suicides relative to 100,000 living population; that I haven't corrected for age distribution, socioeconomic status, etc; and that I couldn't find any current data for dentist mortality in the readily available literature. Sue me. We've got enough here to draw some basic conclusions.

Suicide among white male American dentists is higher than average but not as high as among white male American doctors. (Sorry to limit this to white men, but that's all the data I had to work with.) Don't fret, though. Dentists' death rates from other causes are lower, and on average they live several years longer than the general population. Ditto for doctors.

What's the most suicidal occupation? I won't venture an opinion for the world of work overall, but among health-care types it may well be shrinks. In a study of 18,730 physician deaths from 1967 to 1972 (men and women), psychiatrists accounted for 7 percent of the total but 12 percent of the 593 suicides (source: Rich et al., cited above).

Even more alarming is the rate of suicide among female doctors. A recent study found that 3.6 percent of white female doctors' deaths were suicides--higher than the rate for male doctors and many times the average for U.S. women (0.5 percent for 1990; source: Frank et al., cited above; Vital Statistics of the United States--1990). Women have entered medicine in huge numbers in recent decades, but progress has come at a price.

--CECIL ADAMS

SOURCES

Vital Statistics of the United States--1990, National Center for Health Statistics, Table 1-27, "Deaths from 282 Selected Causes, by 5-Year Age Groups, Race, and Sex: United States--1990."

Bureau of Economic Research and Statistics, "Mortality of Dentists, 1968 to 1972," Journal of the American Dental Association, January 1975, p. 195ff.

[Bholanath]

[from http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4846]

Indian teens have world's highest suicide rate
14:30 02 April 2004
NewScientist.com news service
Shaoni Bhattacharya






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Christian Medical College, Vellore
Suicide, World Health Organization
Suicide, MedlinePlus
The Lancet
The highest suicide rate in the world has been reported among young women in South India by a new study. The research is of major importance, according to the World Health Organization, as it brings to light Asia's suicide problem.

The average suicide rate for young women aged between 15 to 19 living around Vellore in Tamil Nadu was 148 per 100,000. This compares to just 2.1 suicides per 100,000 in the same group in the UK.

The global suicide rate stands at 14.5 deaths per 100,000, with suicide the fourth leading cause of death in the 15 to 19 age group. However, in the Tamil Nadu study, suicide was the number one cause of death among these adolescents.

Notably, young women were much more likely to kill themselves than young men - the reverse of the rest of the world. In Western countries, men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women.

"I was surprised to find the rates were so staggeringly high," says paediatrician Anuradha Bose, who led the study at the Christian Medical College in Vellore.

Major problem
Jose Bertolote, co-ordinator for the management of mental and brain disorders at the World Health Organization in Switzerland says: "I very much praise the authors for having done this. It highlights a major problem."

Bertolote says work in countries like Vietnam have indicated disturbing levels of suicide but until now there had been no studies published in major, English-language journals.

Bose's work, published in The Lancet, follows is the second study to reveal more women killing themselves than men. The first was in China. But it also tallies with unpublished work the WHO is currently carrying out in India, China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. "This is something striking, unfortunately for women," says Bertolote.

"I wonder if it's just another manifestation of the gender bias," says Bose. She believes stress factors such as family conflicts, domestic violence, academic failures, unfulfilled romantic ideals and mental illness all contribute to the high levels of teen suicide. She also suspects that poor countries that are developing rapidly may suffer higher suicide rates.

Bertolote points out stress factors that affect Indian women in particular, such as issues of marriage and dowry. Even one common suicide method is almost unique to Indian women, that of self-immolation. Sacrificing oneself on a fire was the third most frequent method of suicide recorded in the study and was carried out exclusively by girls.

Verbal autopsy
To collect their data, the team in Vellore followed a population of 108,000 people from 1992 to 2000, including about 20,000 children between 10 to 19.

They suspected that other Indian investigations, using police reports of suicide, seriously underestimated suicide rates. So they used a surveillance technique called "verbal autopsy".

After a death, the community health worker in each village visited the family to finds out what happened. This information was relayed to a health nurse, who visits once a week, and then to hospital doctors.

Suicides accounted for between 50 and 75 per cent of all deaths in adolescent girls and about a quarter of all deaths in boys aged 10 to 19. Hanging was the most common method used, followed by poisoning using insecticide.

Bertolote cautions that the study group of 20,000 is too small to be extrapolated to India's population of one billion and notes that there is an established "suicide gradient" in India which rises to the south. But he stresses that these limitations do not diminish the study's importance.

Journal reference: The Lancet (vol 363, p 1117)

[Bholanath]

[from http://www.religioustolerance.org/sui_fact.htm ]

FACTS ABOUT
SUICIDE

Some facts about suicide:
Inter-country comparisons: 1 Industrialized countries tend to have a higher suicide rate than poor, developing countries
The U.S. has a moderate suicide rate compared to other industrialized countries.

Inter-state/province comparisons: U.S. Suicide rates are highest in the western and rocky mountain states.
U.S. Suicide rates are lowest in the Northeastern states.
Canadian suicide rates are highest in British Columbia, on the west coast.
Canadian rates are lowest in Newfoundland, on the east coast.

U.S. data: 2 There were 31,204 deaths by suicide recorded in 1995; 30,535 in 1997. The actual number is probably significantly higher, because many suicides are recorded as accidents.
The most common method of committing suicide (58%) involves firearms. Next were hanging and poisoning. Simply making firearms less easily accessible to a suicidal person can drastically reduce their chance of them taking their own life.
More females than males attempt suicide.
More males than females "succeed" at suicide, by a ratio of 4 to 1.

Comparison of groups within the U.S.: The average suicide rate in the U.S. is about 12 per 100,000.
1.3% of all the deaths in 1997 were by suicide. This compares to 31% from heart disease, 23 from cancer, 7% from stroke.
Whites commit suicide at a higher rate, than African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics.
Young Native Americans have a very high suicide rate; older Native Americans commit suicide less often than do Whites of the same age.
Married folks have a lower rate of suicide than do divorced, separated, widowed and single people.
Suicide rates increase with age: 4 Age Suicide rate per 100,000
10 to 14 years 1.6
15 to 19 9.5
20 to 24 13.6
Whites over 85 65

About one in three American teenagers has contemplated suicide. An Internet poll by About.com indicated that 50% of teens visiting that web site had considered it.
Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among the entire population.
Suicide has been reported as the second leading cause of death among teenagers, exceeded only by traffic accidents. However, the suicide rate among teens is actually lower than that of older persons. Teens tend to have few life-threatening illnesses; teenage deaths from disease is quite low. Thus, the relatively few suicides among teens make suicide a leading cause of death. 3
The reported U.S. suicide rate for very young people (10 to 14 years of age) increased by 183% between 1970 and 1993. However, much of this increase may not be real. In the past, there was widespread denial that pre-teens could decide to end their lives.
Data concerning young homosexuals is somewhat unreliable. It appears that about one in three teen aged suicides is by a gay or lesbian. Since homosexuals represent only about 5% of the population, gays and lesbians are greatly over-represented.
Among the most common faith groups in the U.S., Protestants have the highest suicide rate; Roman Catholics are next; Jews have the lowest rate.
Followers of religions that strongly prohibit suicide, like Christianity and Islam, have a higher suicide rate than those religions which have no strong prohibition (e.g. Buddhism and Hinduism.)
A person has a higher risk of suicide if their parent, close relative or close friend has taken their own life.




References
Doug Martin, "Suicide as Deviance," at: http://www.nwmissouri.edu/nwcourses/martin/
"Suicide," at: http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/suicide.htm
"What is the second leading cause of death among teenagers." at: http://www0.mercurycenter.com/digitalhigh/teen/
"Suicide Facts," National Institute of Mental Health, at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/suifact.htm
Copyright © 2000 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-FEB-9
Latest update: 2001-FEB-11
Author: B.A. Robinson

[Bholanath]

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... cide_rates]

Suicides per 100,000 people per year:[1] Rank Country Year Males Females
1. Lithuania 2003 74.3 13.9
2. Russian Federation 2002 69.3 11.9
3. Belarus 2003 63.3 10.3
4. Sri Lanka 1991 44.6 16.8
5. Kazakhstan 2002 50.2 8.8
6. Estonia 2002 47.7 9.8
7. Slovenia 2003 45 12
8. Hungary 2003 44.9 12
9. Ukraine 2002 46.7 8.4
10. Latvia 2003 45 9.7
11. Japan 2002 35.2 12.8
12. Belgium 1997 31.2 11.4
13. Finland 2003 31.9 9.8
14. Croatia 2003 31.4 8.4
15. Switzerland 2001 26.5 10.6
16. Cuba 1996 24.5 12
17. Austria 2003 27.1 9.3
18. Republic of Korea 2002 24.7 11.2
19. France 2001 26.6 9.1
20. Republic of Moldova 2003 30.6 4.8
21. Czech Republic 2003 27.5 6.8
22. Poland 2002 26.6 5
23. Hong Kong SAR, China 2002 20.7 10.2
24. Romania 2002 23.9 4.7
25. Bulgaria 2003 21 7.3
26. China (Selected Areas) 1999 13 14.8
27. Denmark 2000 20.2 7.2
28. Germany 2001 20.4 7
29. Slovakia 2002 23.6 3.6
30. Sweden 2001 18.9 8.1
31. Ireland 2001 21.4 4.1
32. Australia 2001 20.1 5.3
33. Iceland 2001 19.6 5.6
34. Mauritius 2000 18.8 5.2
35. New Zealand 2000 19.8 4.2
36. Canada 2001 18.7 5.2
37. Suriname 2002 16.6 7.2
38. Portugal 2002 18.9 4.9
39. Bosnia and Herzegovina 1991 20.3 3.3
40. Trinidad and Tobago 1994 17.4 5
41. Luxembourg 2003 18.5 3.5
42. Norway 2002 16.1 5.8
43. United States of America 2001 17.6 4.1
44. India 1998 12.2 9.1
45. Guyana 1994 14.6 6.5
46. Uruguay 1990 16.6 4.2
47. Kyrgyzstan 2003 16.1 3.2
48. Singapore 2002 11.4 7.6
49. Netherlands 2003 12.7 5.9
50. Puerto Rico 1992 16 1.9
51. Turkmenistan 1998 13.8 3.5
52. Spain 2002 12.6 3.9
53. El Salvador 1993 10.4 5.5
54. Thailand 2002 12 3.8
55. Zimbabwe 1990 10.6 5.2
56. Saint Lucia 1988 9.3 5.8
57. Italy 2001 11.1 3.3
58. United Kingdom 2002 10.8 3.1
59. Republic of Macedonia 2003 9.5 4
60. Barbados 1995 9.6 3.7
61. Belize 1995 12.1 0.9
62. Argentina 1996 9.9 3
63. Israel 2000 9.9 2.7
64. Uzbekistan 2002 9.3 3.1
65. Costa Rica 1995 9.7 2.1
66. Chile 1994 10.2 1.4
67. Venezuela 1994 8.3 1.9
68. Malta 2003 8.6 1.5
69. Ecuador 1995 6.4 3.2
70. Seychelles 1987 9.1 0
71. Brazil 1995 6.6 1.8
72. Albania 2003 4.7 3.3
73. Panama 1987 5.6 1.9
74. Colombia 1994 5.5 1.5
75. Nicaragua 1994 4.7 2.2
76. Mexico 1995 5.4 1
77. Greece 2002 4.7 1.2
78. Bahrain 1988 4.9 0.5
79. Tajikistan 2001 2.9 2.3
80. Paraguay 1994 3.4 1.2
81. Georgia 2001 3.4 1.1
82. Philippines 1993 2.5 1.7
83. Kuwait 2002 2.5 1.4
84. Armenia 2003 3.2 0.5
85. Azerbaijan 2002 1.8 0.5
86. Bahamas 1995 2.2 0
87. São Tomé and Príncipe 1987 0 1.8
88. Guatemala 1984 0.9 0.1
89. Peru 1989 0.6 0.4
90. Jamaica 1985 0.5 0.2
91. Iran 1991 0.3 0.1
92. Syrian Arab Republic 1985 0.2 0
93. Egypt 1987 0.1 0
94. Antigua and Barbuda 1995 0 0
95. Dominican Republic 1994 0 0
96. Honduras 1978 0 0
97. Jordan 1979 0 0
98. Saint Kitts and Nevis 1995 0 0

[Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan]

Deacon thank you. One thing that I want to add is that even though many of us thrive in gothic environments, cultures, and so forth there are many that are striving to live normal lives (or what some consider normal, there's no such animal really) and struggle with their natures on a daily basis. It's not merely the loneliness it's the pain of having to endure this alone. This is not an easy life, no one should have to go through it feeling like that. The best thing that we can do is to educate the ones coming into the community, going through awakenings and so forth that we are not evil horrid grave robbing monsters. Humanity has thousands of years worth of programming to undo before people who have awakened to their natures are able to accept themselves and grow in a positive manner.

Suicide is a prevalent issue within the community because as we go along our awakenings become more powerful and often Dark Nights of the Soul can leave someone feeling as if there is no hope for them, nothing out there that cares, and no one that understands. They feel empty, full of pain, struggling with what every source terms deviancy when they don't want to be deviant. Even worse, sometimes a blooming vampyre will try to fit in by using the aesthetic and culture to create a persona to handle these emotions. Eventually they have to deal with the truth of who they are and it's often through these awakenings that they're slapped in the face with this awareness. I don't think that it happens moreso in our community than it does in any other specificly but it does happen and it is a problem that should be addressed. People just focus on the gothic and vampyre community because when Betty Lou kills herself and she's wearing a white dress it's not news. But when Absynthia kills herself and she has piercings, tats, mehendi, blue hair, and or listens to death metal or other dark inspired music and have read at least one Anne Rice book...well you get the pic. One is news, the other is not. It's easier to address the outer layer of the onion than to peel the entire thing and get to the heart of it.

People have been conditioned to believe certain things about us and until we can effectively dismantle these misconceptions it's going to be very difficult to reach out to those just coming into the community. Especially if they are not even aware that a community is even out there. When it comes right down to it, Christians actually tend to commit suicide moreso than we do.

I'm glad you did this one Deacon and Bholanath nice stats!!!


Eternally lost in the night,

Aislin

[deacongray]

I tend to agree with you there.

Like I said I am not typically one who dresses to the nines when it comes to gothic styles. I dress as I have always dressed somewhere between rock god and a guy who works in the medical profession...

The reason I think there is so much focus on the goth community is because while vampires find themselves in many aspects of lifestyle, their seems to be a huge amount that come from a gothic background. The reason I feel is two parts. One Goth is the most common place currently for those who do not feel the belong in normal society...for what ever that is worth.

Two because many of those who are comming out into the this dark little world of ours are younger and tend toward the yonger music and crowds.


Ultimately you are totally correct. The Vampire and Gothic community are not one and the same. Indeed one has nothing to do with another when it comes to real practical vampires.

One is a choice of style and clothing the other is physical or spiritual disposition as whomever sees it.

D

[Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan]

It's a wee bit more than that. Gothic is a way of outwardly expressing an inner darkness. It doesn't have to be a malicious darkness, but vampyres tend to drift into that community because of the overall creativity, elegance, sensuality, intelllect, and acceptance. Here is a community that accepts people regardless of how outlandish they look so if a guy saunters into a club wearing a tailored black suit, red tie, and very cleancut but sporting a set of fangs, no one would really think twice. We can go to events and be ourselves without causing too much attention to ourselves. In essence vampyres can move freely and openly through a gothic event and be completely open with their natures and hidden from view, because no one notices either way. It's very liberating really.

Suicide happens because of many reasons but overall it's because someone has lost the will to live. They've lost hope and simply can not see a positive outcome for their lives. People become so bogged down in their misery and pain that they don't realize that there are many ways to get help. But where do vampyres go to get help? Even if someone gets help for their hopelessness and their other mental illnesses, explaining to your counselor that you're a vampyre and have to live off of the life force of others might be a wee bit difficult without getting slammed into the local institution. So it's internalised and what they truly need help with never gets addressed, unless they are fortunate enough to meet a mentor that can help them through it. Sometimes just hearing someone else say you're not nuts will make a world of difference.

Another trend that I really wish people would consider when they stuff goths and vamps into the same lot as potentially suicidal teens is the ritalin issue. When ritalin first came out there were many pre~teen and teenage suicides and violent behavioral changes, especially when they took the kids off of the drug. It used to be kept locked in medical cabinets with valium and other level 3 narcotics, but now they hand it out like water. The problem is that when a child has been on this kind of drug for many years it alters their brain chemistry to an alarming degree. Not only does it alter their chemistry they have to be weaned off of it and they also have to take anti~depressants indefinitely. Teenage depression is a major issue in this country right now and of course when a teen is angry, frustrated, depressed, and feeling like an outcast already they turn to music and movies that reflect that. It's a way of associating with someone else that can relate to their feelings. Unfortunately, because the press can't figure out what goth is and what goth is not everyone gets slammed into the same blender. What can I say? People are very special.

Sorry didn't mean to get going on a ritalin rant. I've seen too many kids with wrapped up wrists because they were taken off of it and couldn't handle it. I thought it was tough when I was a teen, but these kids have entirely too much to walk through just to get to school every day. Gothic kids and vamp teens have even more to deal with because a lot of schools are pushing conformity to the point of labeling kids that wear all black or black every day as being gangs. They've done it here in Savannah and several other cities in the area.

Diversity rocks.

Aislin