Truancy, stress among signs students might turn suicidal

Star: IPOH: Looking depressed, agitated or stressed out while in school or regularly missing classes – these are signs that a student might turn suicidal.
Yayasan Sosial Strategik executive director Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria said teachers should look out for students with such behaviour as spotting them early could help prevent them from killing themselves.
He said the community, including leaders and hospital staff, could play a part in the early detection and intervention of would-be suicide cases.
Citing the example of a 17-year-old student in Batu Gajah who died of an overdose of medication, Dr Denison said the teenager took his own life because he could not get a scholarship despite scoring 7As in his SPM.
“Perhaps he felt that he had failed because he did not get enough As.
“But there is no problem so big that it cannot be solved,” he said at a forum on community response to suicide organised by Perak MIC.
Dr Jayasooria said the number of suicides in the Indian community in Perak was high. The Royal Medical College here carried out a study which showed that 52% of the suicides in the state last year were committed by Indians.
Perak MIC chairman Datuk G. Rajoo, who launched the event, said the aim of the forum was to educate community leaders about the problem and spread the word in their neighbourhoods.
He said one popular misconception was that only the poor and the uneducated committed suicide.
“Some people also take their own lives because of problems with loan sharks, but we at MIC could help them talk to the loan sharks,” he said.