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Palo Alto Online

Dealing with the unthinkable

by Bill D'Agostino

The news became personal for Paly High School journalists this week when freshman Steven Wertheimer ended his life near the campus' grounds on Monday.

On Wednesday afternoon, two days after the 14-year-old jumped in front of a train, more than 40 students met in their advanced journalism class to decide how they were going to report the painful event in the pages of their school newspaper, The Campanile.

Students grappled with how to appropriately remember Wertheimer's death while also serving some positive role for the student body. Ideas floated around the classroom: How about a story about the causes of depression? Maybe one about the biological aspect to suicide? Should somebody talk to experts at Stanford?

"I think a big thing is the stress of fitting into the perfect Palo Alto box," Junior Amanda Dotson said.

"In some way, we should tell the readers we have a psychiatrist on campus. I didn't know that," another student said.

"Did he show signs of depression?" Dotson asked. Senior Evan Goldin -- one of the paper's editors -- said Wertheimer didn't.

As the discussion progressed, students were disappointed to hear a tribute to Wertheimer could not be included in the paper. The school administration, fearful of copycat suicides, does not want to glorify the youth's death, teacher Esther Wojcicki told the class.

But not all the students agreed with the decision. "It would glorify his life, not his death," one student pleaded. Senior Cori Lytle felt such a story about Wertheimer could help others. "It will show how much it hurt everyone else," she said.

"This is out of your hands," Wojcicki told the class. "The district does not want to be responsible for any other students who might even be thinking about it."

During the conversation, students expressed their frustration about a Palo Alto Daily News story that implicitly linked Wertheimer's suicide to the drinking death of another Paly graduate, Adrian Heideman, two years earlier.

Some members of the class decided to write a letter to the Daily News' editor venting their anger. "The story you ran made an unsubstantiated connection between Wertheimer's suicide and the death of Adrian Heideman two years before when no evidence suggests such a connection exists," the letter said. It continued by stating that, "Your newspaper has added to the grief of the community and to that of the Wertheimer and Heideman families."

As for the Campanile, its next edition -- coming out on Oct. 21 -- the will include one news story about the death and one obituary-style recounting of Steven's life.

But the edition after that, on Nov. 12, will be more in-depth, spotlighting teenage suicide.

One story will be about the dangers of Accutane, a strong acne medication Wertheimer was believed to be taking. Pressure from the Food and Drug administration has reportedly forced the drug's maker to place warning labels stating it "may cause depression, psychosis and, rarely, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and suicide."

However, no definitive scientific link between the drug and suicide has yet to be found.

Another story in the Campanile will probably look at ways to identify depression. Others will likely talk about the causes of stress and productive ways to handle it.

Wojcicki said it is important for the paper to give a larger perspective to students as a way for them to understand what happened, how it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Junior Max Pinto told the class he was disappointed that teachers and administrators other than Wojcicki didn't give out much information about the suicide. He hadn't heard many of the details until Wednesday's class.

Wojcicki explained it wasn't until Monday afternoon, when a suicide note was found in Wertheimer's backpack, that the identity of the victim became apparent.

"That's the reason it's been so hush-hush, nobody knew who it was," Wojcicki told her students.

After class, Pinto said he was glad he was finally able to openly talk about the incident at school. "This (class) is the only place we can have these types of discussions."

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@paweekly.com