PALO ALTO, Calif. — The small squares of colored paper began cropping up on the doors and walls of Henry M. Gunn High School last week, two days after William Dickens, 16, killed himself on the nearby train tracks.
“Just keep swimming,” one Post-it note said. “There is always someone who will listen,” was written on another. And “there’s no meaning to happiness w/o sadness. Take it easy.”
Dickens was the fourth Gunn student in less than six months to commit suicide near where East Meadow Drive crosses the Caltrain tracks here in the affluent, high-achieving heart of the Silicon Valley. A fifth student tried to kill himself but was thwarted by his mother, who suspected his intentions, followed him to the crossing and saved him with the help of a passer-by.
Community meetings, counseling sessions, soul-searching and finger-pointing have not stopped Palo Alto’s suicide cluster from growing.
But as debate continued over how to stop the deaths and improve safety at the crossing where the young people stepped in front of moving trains, Sophia Jiang launched Operation Beautiful.
The 16-year-old Gunn junior got the idea online while looking for something that “would make myself feel better after hearing about this death,” she said in an e-mail. Jiang posted her idea on Facebook and, along with her classmates, began pasting a blizzard of paper scraps with messages of affirmation around campus.
The idea was to “give students a little bit of hope and sunshine to look up at after the darkness and rain,” she said. “It was kind of like telling each other we were all in this together and that we were going to get through this.”
These days, it would be hard to find a better place to witness suicide’s devastation than graceful, sprawling Gunn High School, with its stately redwoods and parklike grounds.
“These past few weeks have been difficult for all of us in the Gunn High School Community,” reads a message on the guidance office window. “If you need emotional support at this time or if you are concerned about a friend, please come by the counseling office at any time during the school day.”
The community is “shattered,” said Philippe Rey, executive director of Adolescent Counseling Services, which offers free assistance to students at eight area middle and high schools, including Gunn.
About the time Operation Beautiful was born, a blog called HMGGMH was created. It was modeled after the website GivesMeHope.com, where people share uplifting moments and shore one another up against the vagaries of life.
Most of the Gunn bloggers sign off, “HMGGMH”: Henry M. Gunn Gives Me Hope.
