Posted by Ann, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2012 at 10:53 am

Please stop reporting about those incidents. This is too sad and people should not be reading about it. Please stop. I beg you.

Posted by Amy, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2012 at 6:40 pm

16 people died last year and they still haven't put any safety measures near the track. What's going on?

Posted by Ann, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2012 at 7:16 pm

Best thing is to stop giving emphasis to tragedies. It can lead to more tragedies. Don't have such sad stories about our community on your paper. Try to find uplifting stories to help all of us have good days and think about positive things we can do in this world.

Do stories about people who are making the difference in our community, about people that are dedicating their time to volunteer work, about people who are helping their neighbors. Let's have a highlighted section with positive stories. This will have our teens, this will have our community.

Posted by mental health, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2012 at 9:25 pm

I wish the media would include contact information for local mental health services every time they print stories like this.

Posted by Worry about yourself, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 7, 2012 at 11:25 pm

Can blame the trains.

We all have a right to know the news - I don't want information censored.

Posted by MDH, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2012 at 12:07 am

It's a shame that the once proud Palo Alto Weekly and its website, Palo Alto Online, do lurid, tabloid stories about every poor soul who takes their life on the tracks. To many, incidents of this nature are personal matters, not fodder for websites trying to boost their pageviews.

Posted by YIMBY, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2012 at 8:36 am
YIMBY is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

I could not agree more with the writer above who wrote, "We all have a right to know the news - I don't want information censored." and completely take issue with the writer who feels we should be sheltered from this bad news. Do we not report on all other tragedies, be they intentional or accidental? Newspapers have the mission of reporting the news. If you don't want to know about the circumstances of these tragic events, than don't read the newspaper, or be selective about what you choose to read, but please don't ask for selective censoring of what is printed as is done in nations without a free press.

As for the actual news reported about Jasmine Ahluwalia, the 31-year-old Palo Alto resident, I do think it very, very important that the public knows that "...Although the facts are not yet certain, preliminary information suggests the person may have intentionally placed herself in the path of the oncoming train." If it was intentional, that means NO AMOUNT of precaution by Caltrain could have prevented it. Yes, at that particular location, it could have been prevented by a 'grade separation', i.e. an overpass like you see for all road/rail intersections on the San Carlos-Belmont segment. In fact, to my knowledge, NO fatalities have occurred there since the berm was constructed. But sadly, the prior two fatalities occurred at the Cal'Ave station - the station itself....Even BART has had a few suicides, but nothing like Caltrain....

Posted by Ann Marie, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2012 at 11:29 am

I don't watch regular news, but I like to read about what is going on in our community. After reding that a successful person decided to hurt herself here at PA Online, somehow my mind stopped working properly and I decided to do the same. Thanks to a man and a woman who was driving by, I am now safe. Sure this does not happen with most people, but sometimes when people are depressed and confused, giving emphasis to such stories can be fatal to some. I wonder how many people ended their lives bc they just see this all the time on the media and at one point they just go for it. I have never though about hurting myself, but I did it after reading the story here and leaning about the victim life story. So I beg you to help our community by not giving such stories with too much info. Report what happened and move on to more positive stories that can empower people.

Posted by family, a resident of another community, on Jan 9, 2012 at 2:14 pm

you all seem to forget that Jasmine is a person who has family around the entire world, these stories are helpful for us to find out what happened and confirm the horrible news. And despite that this is being reported as "intentional" there is no further proof to that and many of her friends are saying this was not intentional at all. People who are depressed by news need to just stop reading news. People like me want this information and are relying on it from across the world.

Posted by omg! stop!, a resident of another community, on Jan 9, 2012 at 2:15 pm

To Ann Marie:

Definitely. If it bleeds it leads (Bad reference here I know, but you get the point and have probably heard of that kind of journalism). Palo Alto Daily/Online is not doing a service reporting on this. Instead, it would be helpful and more socially responsible to post informative articles on depression and coping mechanisms, stress reduction, exercise and healthy eating options that work on the nervous system and moods, as well as promoting and advertising about community groups, organizations, and networks.

Please be well.

Posted by Peter Carpenter, a resident of Atherton, on Jan 9, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Peter Carpenter is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

"it would be helpful and more socially responsible to post informative articles on...."

This IS a community Forum which is intended to be "a thoughtful gathering place for sharing community information and opinion." There is no reason that omg and others cannot post comments about these issues and links to helpful sites. If there is not the 'proper' balance in this Forum it is because we, the posters, have failed to provide that balance.

Posted by Kiki Sushido, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jan 15, 2012 at 10:23 pm

This may be a touch insensitive, but to the lady who read about this incident and decided to replicate it, but was saved by some passersby, you should be getting mental help, not sitting at home commenting on the story.

Tragedies happen every day, as well as good things, however the world we live in is not only a rosy sunny place where the sun shines and rainbows appear on a daily basis, if you have trouble dealing with the realities of living in a world where bad things happen, you need to find a way to cope. Therapy, mind altering drugs, whatever it takes for you to not read a sad story and think, gosh I am going to jump in front of a train too.

Posted by Worry about yourself, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 15, 2012 at 11:07 pm

My comment above was intended to read "CAN'T blame the trains." People will find other ways to kill themselves.

Kiki's posting is right on target.

Posted by CDV, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jan 22, 2012 at 1:51 pm

I'm trying to get in touch with anyone in Jasmine's family. I knew her from the apartment complex where she lived. You can reach me at CDVKelleher@gmail.com.

Posted by Antonio, a resident of another community, on Feb 7, 2012 at 9:52 am

It is sad to know that how easy it is for people to compare one tragic incident with others. It is further distressing to know that people categorize such incidents.It seems that people have lost all emotions, that is perhaps the reason why people are requesting against the reporting of such "incidents".It is further important to get to details of these victims for example, was Jasmine Ahluwalia married? Was she going through some troubles? What, i am hinting at is, was there a fowl play involved? Was she harmed? What, i am trying to say is rather than branding it as suicide or an accident, it is important for us to look at this tragedy or for that matter any tragedy from a different perspective. I really feel sad for her family and friends.