Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Does ’13 Reasons’ Netflix series glorify teen suicide?

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Does ’13 Reasons’ Netflix series glorify teen suicide? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Hannah. The Netflix show Thirteen Reasons Why has
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  Speaker 1: been criticized for glorifying suicide because I'm about to tell
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  Speaker 1: you the story of my life, more specifically, why my
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  Speaker 1: life ended. The fictional series features a high school girl
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  Speaker 1: who sends tapes to students and a teacher explaining how
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  Speaker 1: they wronged her. If you're listening to this tape, you're
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  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why everyone is just so nice
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  Speaker 1: until they drive you to kill yourself. This is Crime
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  Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Other says a teacher gave her
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  Speaker 1: fifteen year old son the idea to watch a Netflix
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  Speaker 1: series she feels contributed to some of his mental health issues.
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  Speaker 1: One of the teachers was discussing the series in class
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  Speaker 1: and basically said, you know, I think it's a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good show. You guys should check it out. Days later,
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  Speaker 1: her son was committed for psychiatric evaluation. He was creating
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  Speaker 1: a thirteen Reasons Why list told us he was having
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  Speaker 1: thoughts to suicide, that he didn't want to live. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't want to live a little boy didn't want to live.
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  Speaker 1: A mother out of Florida now saying a teacher prompt
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  Speaker 1: today discussion of the show that her little boy watched
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  Speaker 1: it and wrote down thirteen reasons he did not want
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  Speaker 1: to live. Now, this Netflix show is about a girl
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  Speaker 1: who records thirteen reasons why she committed suicide. Oh, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: as he grace. This is crime stories. The mom, who
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  Speaker 1: does not want us to identify her, says. The teacher
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  Speaker 1: at Clay High School in Green Cove Springs, Florida, told
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  Speaker 1: his students, including her son, to check out the Netflix
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  Speaker 1: hit show Thirteen Reasons Why. So her son goes and
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  Speaker 1: watches the show, watches the series and immediately started to
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  Speaker 1: self harm. He wrote down thirteen reasons why he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to commit suicide. The mom finds the note, sends him
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  Speaker 1: to a psychiatrist to be evaluated. And we're learning this
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  Speaker 1: from a news for Jack's report, and she is quoting
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  Speaker 1: when I went to talk to the school about it
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  Speaker 1: after he had been released from the Middle Health Resource Center,
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  Speaker 1: I had the written notes that he had made. He
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  Speaker 1: was creating thirteen reasons why he did not want to live.
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  Speaker 1: He created the thirteen reasons why list and told us
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  Speaker 1: that he was having thoughts of suicide. I'm beside myself,
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  Speaker 1: she says the teacher at Clay County school district instigated
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing. Of course, the school disagrees. They say
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  Speaker 1: the students brought up the show and told their teacher
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  Speaker 1: to watch it, and then he discussed the series with
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  Speaker 1: them afterwards, but did not discuss or encourage an in
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  Speaker 1: depth conversation. Okay, Alan, what do we know? The question
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  Speaker 1: is did the teacher bring this up in class as
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  Speaker 1: part of a planned curriculum. The apparent answer is no.
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  Speaker 1: The teacher is telling the principle that she only discussed
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  Speaker 1: it when students in the class started bringing it up
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  Speaker 1: and said, let's talk about it. So I think the
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  Speaker 1: teacher wasn't exactly prepared because she was caught by surprise.
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  Speaker 1: And what do you do? Do you tell them, no,
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  Speaker 1: we're not going to talk about this, or do you
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  Speaker 1: are you brave and you dive into it and unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: not think it through enough, not have enough support to
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  Speaker 1: deal with it. Well, how about saying something like suicide
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  Speaker 1: is never I'm assuming that she did say that. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that's a natural thing, not according to this, not according
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  Speaker 1: to this, But we don't know the truth of it.
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  Speaker 1: The mom says one thing, the teacher says another. But
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  Speaker 1: let's let's talk about The show's produced by Selena Gomez,
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  Speaker 1: former Disney cutie. It's gotten all kind of positive reviews,
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  Speaker 1: but it's also gotten a lot of criticism. The show
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  Speaker 1: Thirteen the Reasons Why, is about Clay Jensen. Before Clay's
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  Speaker 1: she recorded the reasons she decided to kill herself on
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  Speaker 1: a cassette tape, and she sent the reasons to the
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  Speaker 1: thirteen people she believes caused her to commit suicide. Wow,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think this is a kind of content for children.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think children should be learning about suicide. Alan, Well,
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  Speaker 1: the kids brought it up in class. Off, what I'm
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  Speaker 1: seeing is true, and how do you deal with that?
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  Speaker 1: We need an expert to talk about this. This is
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  Speaker 1: really heavy stuff because you bring and put something in
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  Speaker 1: their head or reinforce something that's already in their head,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it's pretty dangerous. Well, I can tell
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  Speaker 1: you this much. The first thing you do when you're
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  Speaker 1: talking to children, somebody brings up suicide, you would say
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  Speaker 1: immediately that is never an alternative. There are ways to
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  Speaker 1: make your life or your problem better. In fact, with
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  Speaker 1: a lot of suicide victims, it is believed that if
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  Speaker 1: they had waited just twenty four to forty eight hours,
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  Speaker 1: they would have not committed suicide. Their feelings at that
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  Speaker 1: moment would have changed, it would have gotten better, or
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  Speaker 1: else they would have realized they did not want to
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  Speaker 1: take their life and hurt all of their family and friends.
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  Speaker 1: If they could have just waited. That's what suicide hotlines do.
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  Speaker 1: They keep you on the line and talk you through
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  Speaker 1: it until you can get past that horrible, horrible moment
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  Speaker 1: of depression when you see no other alternative. Plus, I
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  Speaker 1: think the moment that was brought up, all the parents
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  Speaker 1: should have been alerted. I don't think anyone should have
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  Speaker 1: been encouraged to watch the show if that's even what happened. Alan,
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  Speaker 1: I think we should get the professional Karen Stark on
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  Speaker 1: the line. I want to thank our expert joining us
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  Speaker 1: this morning, Karen Stark. Karen, a Florida mom says a
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  Speaker 1: teacher prompted a discussion of the new Netflix series Thirteen
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  Speaker 1: Reasons Why, which is about a kid that commits sue aside.
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  Speaker 1: It is executive produced by Selena Gomez. Now, this child
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  Speaker 1: did not commit suicide, but is having suicidal thoughts and
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  Speaker 1: has created a list of thirteen reasons why. The child
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  Speaker 1: does not want to live. The kid apparently binged on
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  Speaker 1: it and watched several series and now is come up
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  Speaker 1: with a list of thirteen reasons why the child doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want to live anymore. You know, Karen, it's my understanding
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  Speaker 1: having dealt with suicidal people. But I'm just a j D.
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  Speaker 1: You're the shrink that if you can get them past
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  Speaker 1: that horrible moment, those hours or days that they are
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  Speaker 1: contemplating suicide, that their mood can change and then they
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  Speaker 1: realize it would have been a horrible idea. If you
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  Speaker 1: can just get them through that that horrible moment, I
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  Speaker 1: think that you're absolutely correct, Nancy, Dad, if you can
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  Speaker 1: get them beyond that. But I also want to say
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  Speaker 1: that you need to look for the symptoms, and that
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  Speaker 1: teenagers are particularly susceptible to the idea of suicide. They
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  Speaker 1: don't really have an idea about what death is, um
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  Speaker 1: any kind of a reality surrounding that. And um, the show,
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  Speaker 1: in particular, because I watched it, kind of glorifies suicide
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  Speaker 1: in the way that it handles it. Karen tell me
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  Speaker 1: about the show Unhappy Cannancy. It doesn't really um show
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  Speaker 1: you the pain that she went through or give you
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  Speaker 1: enough focus on the sadness, the anger, all the repercussions
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  Speaker 1: of suicide. It makes it look like this unpopular girl
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  Speaker 1: suddenly became popular and people thought of her a new
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  Speaker 1: way after she kills herself, and so she gets revenge
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  Speaker 1: on all the people around her. Okay, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, she becomes popular after the suicide. People
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  Speaker 1: have regrets and they get together to talk about her
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  Speaker 1: awful And I know they didn't mean to do that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they meant to really focus on bullying and
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  Speaker 1: the susceptibility of teenagers to being ignored, but they didn't
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  Speaker 1: handle it in a way that really shows that this
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  Speaker 1: is not a good idea. That you don't want to
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  Speaker 1: do this, And for kids who are depressed and already
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  Speaker 1: feeling bad about themselves, they're too susceptible to watch something
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  Speaker 1: like that. Guys, I just want to put it out
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  Speaker 1: there right now, National Suicide Prevention Line one eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: two seven three eight hundred two seven three eight to Karen.
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  Speaker 1: You and I discussed this many many times, and I
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  Speaker 1: recall in the horrible, horrible months and really years following
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  Speaker 1: my fiance's murder, I just wanted to go and be
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  Speaker 1: with him. The physical act of killing myself really didn't
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  Speaker 1: play into my thinking. The horrible angst it would have
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  Speaker 1: called my my parents and my friends and case parents.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't even take that into consideration. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that many, many thinking people have thought about suicide. And
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  Speaker 1: in my mind, it was more about being back with Keith.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't about, oh, I'm ending my earthly life and
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  Speaker 1: you're so in it you can't see your way out
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  Speaker 1: of it. But I look back on those dark, dark
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  Speaker 1: times following his murder and I think I would not
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  Speaker 1: have had the twins. I would never have known you
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  Speaker 1: and Alan. It would have devastated my parents. I would
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  Speaker 1: never have married and have the happy blessings that I
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  Speaker 1: have now. And when you're in it, Karen, you can't
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  Speaker 1: see past. It's like you're in a dark I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: like a bubble you can't get out of. I And
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  Speaker 1: I feel like this is just overwhelming. I was an adult,
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  Speaker 1: you know, not much of an adult in my twenty
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  Speaker 1: young adult. I can't imagine children dealing with that care
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  Speaker 1: and stark. They can't, Nancy, I mean, and what you're
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  Speaker 1: describing in your particular instance, it's extreme trauma where you
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  Speaker 1: really need tremendous support and help to get through that.
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  Speaker 1: That darkness you're talking about, it's a deep depression that
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  Speaker 1: you can see out of. That's why it's depression. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's really there's no light that you could see
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the tunnel and no sense that
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  Speaker 1: the world makes. It's hard to be happy when you're
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  Speaker 1: in that place. And Karen, the thing is there's no reason,
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  Speaker 1: like someone could say, well, why are you depressed, and
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  Speaker 1: the answers I don't know. It's like it can be
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  Speaker 1: so palpable. It's like a presence in the room with you.
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  Speaker 1: It's overwhelming, you know. And that is what these children
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  Speaker 1: are suffering because in their world, you know, I look
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  Speaker 1: back at my high school bullies. They're all horrible. I
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  Speaker 1: might add, okay, but I mean now they're like nothing.
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  Speaker 1: I don't even think of them. But in these children's
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  Speaker 1: minds that that's your whole world. And that's right. Their
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  Speaker 1: world is very small, Karen, I'm just beside myself thinking
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  Speaker 1: of a child, a child committing suicide. I mean, I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure that was not Netflix's intention. They may not even
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  Speaker 1: realize children are getting on Netflix and watching it. I
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  Speaker 1: think that they really um in a way. They geared
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  Speaker 1: it for children. They were hoping that it was a
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  Speaker 1: positive message about bullying and depression, and I didn't realize
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  Speaker 1: that he was somebody who had just moved. All of
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  Speaker 1: these are signs you have to be there careful when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to certain kids to understand. Karen, I know
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  Speaker 1: that you're in the middle of one of your seminars.
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  Speaker 1: Please just give the listeners some advice because Okay, don't
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  Speaker 1: get me started. Karen, I'm gonna blame you because I'm
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  Speaker 1: now thinking about my beautiful twins and they have bullies,
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  Speaker 1: girl bullies and boy bullies, I'm sad to say, and
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  Speaker 1: the thought that this could overtake them. I mean, I've
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  Speaker 1: talked to you about this many times, about the girl
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  Speaker 1: bullies and the boy bullies, and for Pete say, they're
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  Speaker 1: only in the third grade, but the thought go this far.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, oh, it's just breaking my heart. To give
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  Speaker 1: me some advice for parents, and I'm all ears, Karen. Start. Absolutely, Nancy,
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  Speaker 1: I'm happy to do that, and that was what I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do. So you have to check it at
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  Speaker 1: whether your kids seem to be depressed, and you have
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  Speaker 1: to not be afraid to bring up the subject. As
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it's hortant to bring it up.
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  Speaker 1: If you bring it up, it doesn't mean you're going
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  Speaker 1: to put an idea in their head. You're going to
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  Speaker 1: find out whether they are feeling that depressed or doubt.
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  Speaker 1: If they're talking about dying right, disappearing, jumping, shooting oneself,
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  Speaker 1: that's something to look out for. If there's been a
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  Speaker 1: recent loss like what you went through Nancy, through death divorce,
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  Speaker 1: you have to pay attention to that. If their self
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  Speaker 1: confidence or steams he is affected, if there's a change
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  Speaker 1: in their personality they seem sad and withdrawn and they
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  Speaker 1: were not like that before. If there's a change in
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  Speaker 1: their behavior where they're not getting along in school or
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  Speaker 1: they can't concentrate under school work, change in sleeping patterns
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  Speaker 1: you know, if they're in if they're insomniac or if
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  Speaker 1: they're sleeping all the time. A change in eating habits um,
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  Speaker 1: if there's a feeling that they're going to harm themselves,
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  Speaker 1: if their steam is very low, if you find at
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  Speaker 1: they have the kind of thoughts like everybody would be
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  Speaker 1: better office they were not around, And most importantly, if
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  Speaker 1: there's no hope for the future, which is what you
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  Speaker 1: were describing, if you believe that things will never get better.
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  Speaker 1: And when you are a teenager and a child, you
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  Speaker 1: don't have that idea that you talked about that someday
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  Speaker 1: you'll be married, you'll have children, it will be very different.
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  Speaker 1: It won't affect you the way it does at this age.
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  Speaker 1: And those are the things that parents really need to
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  Speaker 1: address and not be afraid to do it. If you
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  Speaker 1: have worried, get help for your child, make them talk
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  Speaker 1: about it, Talk with somebody as much support as you
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  Speaker 1: possibly can. It's a serious thing. That's why we talk
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  Speaker 1: about it. Karen. I know this is totally unprofessional, but
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  Speaker 1: I love you. You're just so wonderful and you have
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  Speaker 1: been through so many personal battles and you're a hero
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  Speaker 1: to me, and everything you say is correct on this
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  Speaker 1: and I just want to thank you for being with
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  Speaker 1: us and on this special topic because honestly, Karen, you
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  Speaker 1: know how I am and have a box of Kleani
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  Speaker 1: for every commercial break we ever had. I can hardly
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  Speaker 1: stand it. And you know, these parents love their children
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  Speaker 1: just as much as I love mine, and just the
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  Speaker 1: thought of it, the thought of them doing this, I
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  Speaker 1: mean I'm going to do anything I can to prevent that.
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  Speaker 1: You this is for parents. They have to have somebody, right, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean parents. I mean I'm just a lawyer for
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  Speaker 1: Pete's sake, you know, I'm a crime victim that's trying
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  Speaker 1: to make a change in the world. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: all all of the intricacies of therapy and how the
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  Speaker 1: mind works in psychology. Let me give this number again,
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  Speaker 1: the National Suicide Prevention Line if you have any concern
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  Speaker 1: about yourself or your children. One hundred two seven three
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  Speaker 1: eight to five five. Everyone, thank you for being with
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  Speaker 1: us today. Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off. Goodbye, friend,