Teenage suicide rate soaring in Russia
Teachers criticized for neglecting issue of bullying among children
MOSCOW— A rash of teenage suicides in Russia has set off alarm bells and experts are urging the government to take immediate action.
Russia has the world’s third-highest rate of suicide among teenagers aged15 to19, with about1,500 taking their own lives every year, according to a recent UNICEF report. The rate is higher only in the neighbouring former Soviet republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan.
This week, two 14-year-old girls in the Moscow suburb of Lobnya killed themselves by jumping off the roof of a 14-storey building while holding hands. They had skipped classes for two weeks and were terrified of what their parents would do to them once they found out, Russian media quoted their friends as saying. Several other recent teen suicides have been reported elsewhere in Russia. Experts say that domestic violence and problems in schools are among the main reasons why adolescents take their lives. In recent years, there have been 19 to 20 annual suicides per 100,000 teenagers in Russia — three times the world average, said Boris Polozhy of the respected Serbsky psychi- atric centre in Moscow. “Until the highest authorities see suicide as a problem, our joint efforts will be unlikely to yield any results,” he said Friday. In the southwestern Siberian region of Tuva, the rate reaches a staggering 120 suicides per 100,000 teenagers, while the nearby region of Buryatiya has an average rat of 77 per 100,000. Both regions are impoverished and have high crime and alcoholism rates. Relations between Russian chil- dren and their parents are often “notable for their cruelty,” said Natalya Sinyagina of the Education Ministry’s Centre for Education Issues in Moscow. “(But) school is also not the safest place for kids.”
Russia’s public schools are underfunded, staffed with poorly paid teachers and have been widely criticized for neglecting the issue of bullying among children.
“We’ve seen cases when a child says ‘Better kill me, I’m not going to school,’ ” Sinyagina said.