Dear online readers,

Thanks to Julie for her big, warm heart in expressing her gratitude. Deepest thanks to our police officers and to the security guards, for being our sentinels out there in the cold and the dark.

As a former Gunn English teacher, and a TrackWatch volunteer in 2010, I'd like to offer an additional way for everyone to help.

Right now, a grassroots initiative called "Save the 2,008" is before the Palo Alto public—offering a clear and sensible path toward a healthier, happier life at Gunn High.

Announced last month to the School Board and in the "Weekly," led by Gunn sophomore Martha Cabot and former Gunn English teacher Marc Vincenti, "Save the 2,008" sets forth six common-sense, concrete steps—things that can be done almost immediately—that would ease the pressures of nightly homework, course loads, cheating, sleep-deprivation, distraction and bullying, class sizes, and relentless grading.

Details are on our website: www.savethe2008.com

Don't just talk or write. TAKE ACTION.

realize you cut out a segment of the population by using Facebook. As a privacy advocate, I object to Facebook and would donate to this cause but won't be reached by any fb campaign.

What about our GIs who are stationed in possibly 150 countries around the world? They might appreciate a little thank you at Christmas time, too!

Thank you so much Julie for taking charge of this! What a wonderful way to show the guards how much this community appreciates their presence.

I hope nearby neighbors will drop off hot Christmas dinners and lunches for them, too. In the interest of their health and the prospects of more cold, rainy days and nights, I urge the city or their employer to provide some form of shelter and warmth. To be effective their presence needs to be obvious/visbile, but it would be nice to have more than an umbrella and warm raincoat for protection....I dont have a solution but public safety experts must know the best practice for this situation so important during the holidays. I would be glad to help if I know what could be done. Those of us with military service know what is like to stand watch during terrible weather.

What a disturbing reality in my hometown, this is a display of utter helplessness in the face of extreme crisis. Everyone should know that policing will not solve this problem, but that's the best we can come up with. For a town that is so educated and that puts such a high emphasis on higher learning it can't come up with real solutions, it resorts to throwing money at the problem. Because money solves everything, doesn't it?

God bless the guards for the important work they do. No, it is not the perfect solution. But not another precious life should be lost on those tracks or anywhere else. Yes, God bless all the military and police as well. It is sad that the guards are needed, but they are needed. May the students learn that their lives are far more important than wealth and fame. But if they do become wealthy, may they share the blessing with those who are less fortunate. Yes, i agree that the minds in Palo Alto can think of ways to confront and battle depression and hopelessness. But people can never solve the problems of the mind and heart unless they turn to God. So may God help us all to teach the children that God loves them and cares about them.

God has very little to do with teen suicide. It's not god we should be beseeching it's the school board which has never implemented Project Safety Net p8, allows teachers to ignore it's homework policy, and basically just doesn't care to make any reforms. Ken Dauber is only one guy he can't do it alone. Gift cards for security guards are a feel good idea that make YOU feel like you are doing something when actually you are doing nothing. How about less homework and more school counseling, where are all the volunteers for that ?

Do not get it wrong, I respect what those poor chaps are there for. It is sweet to give them a gift for Christmas.
On the other hand, no matter how you look at it, the way we are trying to deal with the crisis is ridiculous. Thanks to Marc, this post is the first time that I came across the 2,008 initiative. Finally! Go to the root cause, not try to catch them before they hit the ground. Break the stonewalling and closing ranks; speak honestly what happened and why. That may help, not guarding the rails.

By the way (not a snotty comment but an actual question), how many suicides did the guards help to prevent?

Thank you so much Ms. Lythcott-Haims. What a great idea. I too rolled down my car window and expressed gratitude to the guard. Then I thought of bringing cookies and/or hot coffee, which I did not do. Good thing the world has people like Ms. Lythcott-Haims. I didn't know about the Facebook thing.

Readers have commented saying or implying that the guarding of the tracks is the only solution. Palo Alto Unified and the high-schools have put many programs in place and changed much. It seemed to be working as there are fewer suicides now.

Curious..why were they not given the cash instead of assuming and abetting consumerism? Maybe they needed help paying rent or buying food.

So sad that we think fewer suicides spell success. One is too many for a school year and indicates a failed school system. I'm not on board with watching train tracks or raising a bit of money to ease a guilty conscience.

Anyone who solely blames the "failed school system" is ignorant to the larger issues of student mental health.

Have the guards prevented any suicides?

But now there seems to be a need for guards at other crossings.

[Post removed.]

Bravo to Julie for spearheading this effort! I have taken the guards lunch and snacks, but giving them what amounts to a week's pay is so much more meaningful. FYI, they earn $9 an hour, and they are not allowed to even read while on duty (it has to be one of the most boring and lonely jobs out there). Their bathroom breaks are few and far between and depend on the kindness of local business owners. The recent rains have made their jobs especially difficult. I urge everyone who walks or drives across the tracks regularly to stop and extend your gratitude. These are low-wage workers who generally live in other communities and rise in the middle of the night to be on duty at 4:45 a.m. (or, for those on the second shift, go home to their families after the 2 a.m. freight train).

We need more parent education as well as parents who are willing to listen to our students. Getting into a prestigious institution of higher learning should not be the number one goal of one's high school education. One great source of suggestions for improvements in the social/emotional health of our students is the grassroots students and community organization recently started: savethe20018.org I am so proud of Martha for stepping up to the plate and saying things that should have said long ago. Thank you Martha!

We Can Do Better Palo Alto made many suggestions over the last several years that could have easily been implemented. One of those suggestions which comes to mind and which the previous superintendent ignored the directive to implement is the Teacher Advisory system which is providing Paly kids with more adult touchpoints throughout their high school careers. I certainly think that Gunn deserves an equally good counseling system. If not now, then when?

We do have the opportunity to move forward taking a serious look at the savethe2008's suggestions as well as WCDBPA. These are simple steps which may yield huge results. They are certainly worth the "good old college try."

Parent education is imperative. We can start having forums where we hear from both the students themselves as well as parents and staff. Surely there are measures that are much better at suicide prevention than the track guard program. It saddens me that another cluster started and the the only solution we have is to step up the track guard program hours.

@Feeling good isn't doing good: Please explain to the readers of this forum what Project Safety Net's p8 is. I think most people are woefully ignorant of this.

Regrettably, the Project Safety Net has not been an effective organization and can't even keep a director. Clearly, we need to step back and take a look at all of the ways that we can reboot. Parents, don't look the other way and then say, "what happened?" It's on us to protect our children.

It is a bit shocking to see that I'm supposed to feel better because fewer students have committed suicide. One suicide is too many. It means something is wrong with the big picture, that's for sure. Though it is not PAUSD's fault, their efforts were not effective. Something is still wrong and a paying a guard to watch the tracks is not doing anything except making a few members of the public feel better. I will not be donating to this cause or supporting it.

It's amazing to me that there are so many negative comments about this story. This was a wonderful gift to people who are doing a job that, frankly, no one else wants to do. Whether it's helping lower the chances of train suicide isn't really the point. They're out there working an honest job, in undesirable conditions, and probably getting paid peanuts to do it.
I applaude Julie for doing this.

This is a job that people want to do and they get paid for it. It sounds like someone is looking down upon these folks doing jobs that they want to do, but that a poster is saying that no one wants this job, as if it is beneath them. Security guard is respectable work, but a Facebook campaign by a local publicity-seeker may not be as hard news as other issues.i agree that this is not the way to prevent suicide.

Although well intentioned, this is a mistake.
Having worked a part-time security gig in my younger days, I know most of my co-workers looked at this type of work as easy money. No skill involved and get paid to sit around, sometimes walk around, and do nothing. To think that the guards working the tracks really care about some wealthy over stressed, heart broken, or sleep deprived kids may be naive. In fact, there's probably a bunch hoping more track suicides occur so they too can be heroes or guardians of our children and a pay raise. The money could be better spent on other ways to help these kids.

Amazed at some of these comments. I'm very sorry some of you are unhappy and feel compelled to comment about things you don't understand.

A few facts:
Having guards at the tracks is a deterrent to suicides there. Many possible tragedies have been prevented over the last five years by the presence of people watching at these crossings. Anything that buys time enough for someone to reconsider, or even better, to get help has been proven to prevent suicides. It does, it has and it will.

No suicide is the fault of any school or teacher. The school is a place where opportunities exist for a troubled student to be noticed and referred for professional help. School teachers are usually not mental health professionals, but are often skilled enough to notice a problem and refer the student for help. If they do not see signs of trouble, this is not their fault. Sometimes the person is good at hiding distress.

Sitting around making negative statements online from a place of ignorance is not helpful to anyone.

Trying to create opportunities for others to show appreciation for someone doing a job for our community is a fine thing to do.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors has been trying to raise a few thousand dollars to help prevent our local families from ending up homeless and in the street. I think it is absolutely disgusting that this is a town that passed a ban on being homeless, that refuses to help the homeless, that passed a sit-lie ordinance which is practically a Nuremberg law that bans certain people from even existing in our midst, and then wants to applaud itself and give itself a hand for paying extra money to those who are already employed and presumably not homeless.

Hey homeless people, vehicle dwellers, BV families and VTP kids, perhaps if you do trackwatch this heartless town will give a crap about you. Otherwise, tough titties.

I haven't really wanted to comment on this, but since others are still commenting, I will say my piece.

I do thank the track guards for doing a task which is boring, monotonous and in poor weather, cold and wet. They are doing the job and deserve our thanks and any show of gratitude they get.

The bigger issue is whether this is a deterrent or not? We have 3 crossings near where suicides have occurred in the last ten years or so. There is no way of knowing how many lives have been saved since the track watch started, but we do know that there was a suicide not so long ago in the wee early hours when the guard had gone home.

This means that either the student waited until later when there was no guard, or that it is possibly the wee early hours that some students are more vulnerable.

There was a suicide on 280 recently of a girl from Woodside who jumped from a freeway overpass. We have many freeway overpasses and a new bike bridge in the offing. Does this mean that we need to put guards on these bridges?

Of course we can't monitor every possible site, just in case. After all, if someone is suicide minded, there are other options. Robin Williams' method has been all over the media, do we know if there have been copycats as a result?

Suicide on the tracks is something that is visible and can't easily be hidden. There are other methods which are less visible and the media and the public at large are less likely to hear about them.

What we don't know is whether there have been any other attempted suicides by other means in PAUSD. Obviously this is something we are not going to be told about. But if we are going to have a discussion about preventing student suicide in Palo Alto, then we have to look further than just putting guards on the crossings. Sorry to say it, and all that, but how on earth can we assess whether these guards are making a difference or not?

I live by the tracks and anyone who wishes to commit suicide will not be deterred by the paid security guards. Perhaps someone looking to be stopped might, but like the poor kid who went at 1:15am, someone who has planned to do it has proven that they can do it. The guards do nothing but send me a message that someone feels good about having them out there while we walk and drive by. I just don't see any effectiveness. It would be nice to say that if they only save one life, then it is all worth it, but then I think that the guards and all of us were not able to save that one life earlier this year, so is it really doing anything at all?

BV, Please open your home to some BV families. It is very easy to criticize others.

Ineffective, Again, Track Watch has prevented suicides. It prevents them. It will prevent them. We will never know exactly how many, but I know of a number of suicides it has prevented. I have also posted, many times, links to the research which shows that any reduction in access prevents suicides. I won't post it again because you aren't someone who does any research before putting your views out there. Please don't do this any more. It will prevent no tragedies.