Sad news, need Internet hugs if possible

[casecandy]

As some of you know, I'm a high school teacher. The school is less than 400 kids on paper and when you take into account the abysmal attendance, it's really more like 250 regulars. Anyway, today a student in Secondary 5 (Grade 11 for non-Quebecers) committed suicide and our school community is devastated. My classroom is open in case students want to talk... but 99% of them went home, and personally, I feel like I was just punched in the stomach. My body aches. I'm not being emo. I really miss the kid. He was the best guitarist in the school (I'm including teachers in that estimation). Most 17-year-olds are dicking around with "Nothing Else Matters," but he was playing a 7-string, tuned so low it shook the walls of my classroom when he played it over lunch. He knew black metal and death metal I honestly didn't. And now he's gone. The eerie thing was, I subbed a colleague's class first period, and it was his class. I didn't know, they didn't know. We were laughing and I did attendance and I marked him absent. Now I know why. The poor kid... he had a rough life... his own mother committed suicide a few years back and he was the one who found her. I cannot begin to fathom the darkness he was carrying around. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I guess it's just that a school, like, say, a web forum, is a real community. And I've spent the better part of my morning weeping for a kid that lots of us ILFers could have been, who knew what fuzz was and what it could do, and it was important to him until his last day on earth. RIP.

[jrmy]

Serious, serious millions of hugs sent. That is devestating. Without going into personal history, I've been touched a couple of times by suicide - I'm sure that many of us here have (as a forum, not so long ago, of course) - and it's a terrible thing. I am so sincerely sorry, man. Definitely thinking of you.

[blakestree]

[dubkitty]

[Chankgeez]

Yeah,

[SPACERITUAL]

Im sorry Case. Its a shitty situation. I had a friend kill himself last year and even worse he videotaped it and named me as one of the people responsible.

[goroth]

[gnomethrone]

Sorry to hear that. You are a good person who does good things.

[Eivind August]

[aens_wife]

Sending love your way. So sorry, man. <3

[popvulture]

Big big hugs, man!

[coldbrightsunlight]

that's really horrible, I'm sorry you and the school and the kid and his family had to go through that.

[UglyCasanova]

Depression is terrifying.

[GuitarSlim101]

Really sorry for your loss. Many, many hugs to you.

[Jwar]

Very sorry to hear!! All the hugs in the world!