How Do Hopkins’ Suicide Rates Compare to the Rest of The Country?

For some age groups, Hopkins youth are more at risk than a Harvard study last week reported for American youth as a whole.

Students in the Hopkins school district think about suicide and attempt suicide at rates comparable to the dangerous levels reported in a Harvard study last week—and in some cases even exceed those rates, a local survey suggests. The Harvard study of nearly 6,500 teenagers found that 12.1 percent had thought about suicide while 4 percent either made plans to kill themselves or actually attempted suicide. In comparison, the 2010 Minnesota Student Survey found that between 8 and 25 percent of Hopkins youth had thought about killing themselves, depending on the age and gender. The rates for those attempting suicide ranged from 0 to 5 percent.   Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts Among Hopkins Students NOTE: All numbers are percentages. Click on …

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Police blotter

Blotter: Suicide, Vehicle Crashes and Business Thefts

A twice-weekly selection of incidents drawn from Hopkins police files.

Monday, Sept. 10 Tuesday, Sept. 11 Wednesday, Sept. 12 Thursday, Sept. 13   Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our free daily newsletter  

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Parents Talk

Parents Talk: Mourning A Man Who Chose Suicide

The death of a friend's son has me asking what I can do for suicide awareness and prevention.

The son of one of my friends killed himself last week. My friend found him. When I heard that on Monday, I had a rush of emotions: disbelief, despair and anger. Five days earlier, I read a story about a woman whose son, Dustin, committed suicide in fall 2011. The story was by Mike Schoemer, St. Michael Patch local editor. At the time I read the St. Michael story, I felt a tremendous amount of empathy for Dustin's mother, Gretchen Harrington. But it wasn't until I heard about the death of my friend's son that I felt some of the anguish of a suicide survivor. I cried for my friend, who came home from work to find her son dead. I wanted to hug her and sob with her for as long as she needed me; long-distance prayers and Facebook posts seem so …

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Moms Talk: Choked up over the 'Choking Game'

How do we let our children gain their independence while still making sure they'll have tomorrow to learn from their mistakes?

Gone are the days of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or even wondering if kids still play spin the bottle. On Thursday, Robbinsdale Schools called and emailed all middle school parents to tell us about the choking game. And yesterday, Dunwoody Patch, just outside Atlanta, reported that a 10-year-old boy there died from the choking game last week. This is not something I wanted to think about. I fear the thought of my children getting hurt by something they did themselves. And that got me thinking—how do we save our children from themselves? When kids are young, we have to watch them at all times. As demanding and exhausting as this is, you can usually say with great certainty that you know what they’re up to—then they become teenagers. Suddenly…

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