A school boy who killed himself spent nearly two hours with a counsellor, the day before his body was found hanging from a tree near Brown’s Town.
Several concerns concerning the mental state of the nation’s teen have been raised following the suicide of a York Castle High School student on Friday morning, January 8. The principal of the school is now calling for Jamaicans to take mental related issues seriously especially parents who may be advised to seek help for their children, regarding this issue.
Fifteen-year-old Rudolph Revers, a grade ten student from Huntley, Brown’s Town, St. Ann was said to have been seriously depressed.This depression came as a result of the death of his grandfather last year. It is understood that the boy was very close to his grandfather.Though his school family and church community tried in their efforts at helping the young teen, he ended his life. With that comes the pain for a family who cared for the boy.
Mr Treasure says a wider issue is that many Jamaicans do not understand depression and other mental related issues.
FOUND HANGING
Reports are the body of Rudolph Revers was found hanging from a tree, on Friday morning, January 8 at about 7 o’clock. A relative made the discovery at the home where Revers lived with his grandmother and other family members.
Principal of York Castle High School, Raymon Treasure in a discussion with the North Coast Times described Revers as a boy of good character despite his challenges and “complex issues.”
“He wasn’t a bad student… He cooperated well with the students, teachers and his family. Despite his challenges, he wasn’t disruptive. He was a good student,” he explained.
Treasure said that the suicide was clearly something that the teachers and students are saddened by and they are hurt, especially the students of his class with whom Revers was close. He went on to state that the students will go on to cherish the memory of Revers and they have already done so by writing on his Facebook page.
LOVE FOR ARCHITECTURE
Mr. Treasure said that Revers’ career goal was to become an architect. However, he was having difficulties in doing technical drawing. He spent close to two hours with the school’s guidance counsellor on Thursday, January 7; that was his last day at school. He and that guidance counsellor worked on that challenge and he was to do visual arts to help him matriculate further in school to pursue his dreams.
NOT BULLIED
There were allegations in other parts of the media that Revers was bullied. In response to this, Mr Treasure said that he was close to the family and if Revers was bullied he, Treasure, would have known as he communicated well with his mother and grandmother. “Rudolph was a big boy essentially and he did not share the ‘views’ the conventional views of students… If there was a problem he would have no problem reporting it,” he explained.
Even though Revers had these “complex issues” dealing with, his friends and his church were there to support him. “Even on his last day at school, his friends were supporting him,” said Treasure.
It is also heartbreaking for his family as they are trying to come to term with the tragedy. Revers was recommended to see a psychologist.
LOVE FOR MMORPGs
It is alleged that Revers spent hours online playing massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPGs). This game allowed its player to be any character he wanted to be in a virtual reality world. This game allowed him to meet people from across the world. With his complexities and his game, this made his situation even more complex.
Mr Treasure is appealing to parents to seek counselling for their children with mental related issues whenever recommendations are made are made to them. He notes that mental illness and depression are not treated seriously in Jamaica.
Rivers’ mother is a teacher.
