Principal who broke the silence on teen suicide strikes a chord
Principals from across New Zealand have contacted Kamo High School head Jo Hutt to congratulate her for having the courage to break the silence on student suicide.
Hutt has featured in two major investigations into youth suicide as part of the Herald’s Break the Silence series. She is the principal of Kamo High, a secondary school in Whangarei that was “rocked to the core” after three teen suicides in 2012.
Two of the students who took their own lives, Colin Taipari-Herewini and Mia Dunn, were from the same Kamo High classroom: 10LW. Their deaths marked the start of an unprecedented youth suicide cluster in Northland that claimed the lives of 19 young people in 2012.
The Herald first contacted Hutt in April to inform her that we were investigating the Northland suicide cluster that started at her high school.
We explained that New Zealand has the worst teen suicide rate in the developed world and that the annual number of deaths has remained largely unchanged for 20 years.
Hutt was initially reluctant to talk about such a sensitive topic, but after an hour-long conversation she decided this was an issue that needed to be “hauled out of the shadows”. it,” she said. “Our young people can come and tell us what’s going on and how they’re feeling.”
She told the teachers if they didn’t feel comfortable answering students’ questions, they could refer them to the guidance counsellors, “but don’t just brush it under the carpet”.
Hutt said she had received only positive feedback about the media coverage.
She said the head boy came into her office and said: “It’s pretty cool it’s being talked about.”
Principals from as far off as Invercargill had contacted her to say “good on you for speaking out”, she said. One principal emailed Hutt to say it’s a shame not all parts of the country are comfortable speaking openly about suicide.
“This is not a Northland issue, it’s a national issue,” Hutt said. “We need to blow the whistle; blow it hard.”
While raising awareness about the high rates of youth suicide was a good start, Hutt said it was even more important to start a conversation about how we might change things.
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