Suicide rates in the United States have traditionally been higher among whites than blacks across all age groups. However, a new study from researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and collaborators published report shows that racial disparities in suicide rates are age-related. Specifically, for the first time ever, suicide rates for black children aged 5-12 were roughly two times higher than those of similarly aged white children.
“Our findings provide further evidence of a significant age-related racial disparity in childhood suicide rates and rebut the long-held perception that suicide rates are uniformly higher in whites than blacks in the United States,” says Jeff Bridge, PhD, director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research and lead author of the publication. “The large age-related racial difference in suicide rates did not change during the study period, suggesting that this disparity is not explained by recent events such as the economic recession.”
For older children, the trend is different. For youth aged 13-17 years, suicide was roughly 50 percent lower in black children than in white children.
But with all that said, we have to ask ourselves, what is happening to our Black youth?
Suicide deaths have been frequent stories in news reports recently. Here are just a few:
Ten-year-old son Kevin Reese, Jr. loved drawing and painting. The fifth grader at Robinson Elementary School had the biggest smile. On the surface, he was a seemingly happy kid.
“Kevin was a goofy child,” said his mom Crystal. “He’s my little goof troop, I called him.”
But on the inside, he had a deep-seated struggle, a struggle his mom says was fueled by bullying at school, according to what he told her.
“I just thought he was handling the situations. They wrote on his tablet to kill yourself, ‘You don’t belong here,'” Crystal said. “When it got physical back in November, he came home crying because he didn’t fight back and one of the boys punched him several times coming from recess.”
Then, on Jan. 21, “he just had enough. He just had enough and he felt that he was backed into a corner.”
Kevin and his 13-year-old sister got off the school bus. Mom was out of town for work. His stepdad was on his way home from work, but wouldn’t make it in time to stop the moment that would change this family forever.
Mom got a frantic call from Kevin’s sister.
“She was just screaming on the phone, and I didn’t understand and she screamed, ‘Kevin,'” Crystal said.
Little Kevin committed suicide inside their Katy home.
“He hung himself in his closet. I told her to hang on with me, if you cut him down and while you’re cutting him down, call 911,” she added.
Nigel Shelby was a 15 years old with a big personality. He was always singing and dancing, well-liked and was known as an all-around cool guy by many of his friends.
“Nigel was the sweetest child,” his mother Camika Shelby told WAFF.
Nigel was also gay, coming out to his mother two years ago. The freshman’s sexuality made him the target of bullying inside the hallways and classrooms at Huntsville High School. That abuse, combined with depression, propelled Nigel to take his own life.
Nigel’s mother told WAFF she hopes her son’s memory rises above the details that led to his death – and the controversy now surrounding the deputy’s actions.
“I don’t want him to be remembered as a kid who was bullied for being gay and who took his own life,” she said. “He was so much more than that. He was sunshine. He was just a great spirit to have around and it just breaks my heart because I feel like he had so much more love to give.”
McKenzie Adams, a “bubbly” 9-year-old fourth-grader from Linden, Alabama, took her own life, hanging herself in her grandmother’s home, reports CBS affiliate WIAT. Her family says the suicide came after McKenzie endured months of racist bullying and taunts.
McKenzie’s mother and grandmother said that they complained to the State Board of Education about the cruel taunts the little girl was forced to endure at U.S. Jones Elementary School, most of which they said centered around…
…her friendship with a boy.
“She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as ‘kill yourself,’ ‘you think you’re white because you ride with that white boy,’ ‘you ugly,’ ‘Black b-tch,’ ‘just die’,” her Aunt, Eddwina Harris said.
On a Monday night, McKenzie, a bright student who dreamed of being a scientist, did her homework as she usually did, and then excused herself to the bathroom, Harris told People. Her grandmother noticed that she had been gone longer than usual and went to go find her, only to find the bathroom door locked.
Harris says that McKenzie’s grandmother got a butter knife and managed to unlock the door and found the little girl. McKenzie’s grandmother managed to call 911, and respondents performed CPR, however, McKenzie ultimately died at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital.
Phillip Spruill, a handsome 11-year old older brother from Philadelphia, committed suicide apparently after being bullied repeatedly for months by his classmates. The fifth grader, who was targeted by bullies because of his weight, took his own life with a belt wrapped around his neck twice. A horrifying sight when his mother found him earlier this month.
“He was a very sensitive little boy. He loved to laugh. He loved to play. He wanted to make friends with everybody he saw. He was a very kind little boy,” Phillip’s grandmother, Linda Lash-Smith said.
Six-year-old Minnesota born Kendrea Johnson was found hanging from a jump rope in what many believe to be an apparent suicide.
On Johnson’s body was found a note that she left after the incident with the words, “I’m sorry.” Another note stated, “I’m sad for what I do.”
At a June 2014 exam, Kendrea had been assessed as having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, and she had been receiving intensive treatment, according to the police reports. The exam noted that the girl “showed severe guilt, as she does not feel lovable or acceptable and reports feeling guilty and responsible for out-of-home placement.”
Kendrea was placed in foster care in December 2013 after Hennepin County child protection accused her mother of abusing drugs and not following through with a plan to keep her children safe.
Records show that Kendrea’s behavior changed dramatically in foster care. Her most recent foster mother told Brooklyn Park police that the girl once threatened to kill her with a screwdriver. Kendrea also told her foster mother that she wanted to jump out a window and kill herself, said “Nobody likes me” and drew pictures at school of a child hanging from a rope. Police found healed ligature marks on both sides of her neck, records show.