Texas A&M student dies by PRESS RELEASE Texas A&M University Police have confirmed the apparent self-inflicted death of Christopher Anthony Lawler, a Texas A&M student and resident of Appelt Hall on Sunday evening February 15. Details of the death will be released pending a complete investigation by the University Police. Any students of staff needing assistance should be informed to call the Student Counseling Services at 845-4427 or after 4pm please contact HelpLine at 845-2700. Any media inquires should be directed to Texas A&M University Relations at 862-2302. Students Counseling Center staff will be available for residents of Appelt Hall beginning at 10am on Monday, February 16 in the first floor TV lounge, room 109. http://www.thebatt.com/ I was leaving my dorm after the AS game and heard some guys talking about there being emergency vehicles outside. I think they thought it was an accident at the time. Anyways, I went to the on campus corner store to get some Iced Tea when one of the stockers there told the cashier that he'd heard somebody had killed themselves in the dorm next to the Commons. Anyways, I know people have different thoughts on suicide and what not, I hope this doesn't turn into a thread to debate that, I just wanted to say prayers for the family and the soul of Christopher Lawler.+
curious question, when horrible stuff like that happens in colleges, does the administration cover it up? I dont know about A&M or any other schools, but my school has been notorious around the student pop to cover up the existence of suicides, rapes, hate crimes, etc.
During my freshman year, a guy in my dorm commited suicide at A&M. If anything, they were very open. They provided free counciling if you wanted it and didn't cover it up one bit. In fact, the most horrible thing was done in the Battalion...they showed a picture on the front page of the cleaning guys hosing off the area where he had jumped to his death. Most thought that was pretty tasteless.
I'd heard about that supermac. Yeah, A&M is quite open about this stuff. Not long after it happened, the release I posted at the top of this thread was on the web.
I was at A&M in 1972-74. I lived in Hart Hall. I went to a few Silver Taps ceremonies. One was for my Fish Camp roommate and one was for a high school classmate. Both were killed in automobile accidents going home or coming back to school. I can still get shivers recalling those nights. Do they still hold Silver Taps?
It's amazing how many people have committed suicide in the past few years. Each of my sisters had some of their best friends kill themselves when they were still in high school. A teammate from the volleyball team's father shot himself in the head her senior year in HS. And if I'm not mistaken, someone jumped out the 14th floor of Jester the year before I came to UT. I simply cannot FATHOM life being sooo horrible that you would want to do such a thing - especially at such a young age.
When I was at Rice, we had a string of three suicides within a year. (Not many before or since.) First, a freshman who was under a lot of pressure jumped off a dorm balcony right in front of his friends, who didn't know he was going to do it. I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for all the witnesses. Then a grad student shot himself (he was Korean and the family considered it a dishonor, so they quickly asked that it not be mentioned again). The next year, a senior jumped off a balcony across the street from campus, at some strange hour. It's weird... but it happens. All three of my best friends in high school attempted it - fortunately, without serious damage done to themselves. One of them eventually lost her brother to suicide. He had been trying it for a long time and finally succeeded; he even planned for everybody (friends, family, etc.) to be out of his way for a while so he could get it done. Don't know what causes this... some self-destructive impulse in people. Most of us don't have it, or don't think we do, but strange things can happen under pressure or when we start giving in to other self-destructive impulses.
On a side note, I saw an article in the Houston Chronicle that said Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate per capita in the country.
I dislike A&M intensely, but it's still a shame the guy killed himself. I also find it strange that there's a news story on it. At the newspaper I work for, we never run stories on suicides. It's considered private and not news, so long as the person wasn't already in the news. You'd be surprised how many suicides there are. I speak with the coroner in my county each week, and while there aren't car accident victims in there each week, there is almost invariably a suicide.
Silver Taps and Muster...the two best traditions at A&M. Both of my sisters in law were on Traditions council and dealt with Silver Taps. There is a lot of work put in by people to make sure the families can be in attendence and are taken care of during their stays on campus. They do a fantastic job.
Aparently, during the first couple of months of the fall semester in 2003, three students in three different incidents killed themselves by jumping from the NYU library.
Oski: Are you going to attend Silver Taps? I will try to make it up there for Muster. If so, we should hook up for a bowl of cappuchino at Sweet Eugene's.
It wasn't really a news story hippie, they just put the official university release, which I posted above. There will be a story though, word gets around and they have to address it. If you can make it Ref, I should be here.
i'm sorry to hear about this... but for a guy to kill himself is sad... i know oski does not want it to turn into a debate....but man you have to be a sorry person to take your own life. i'm just glad he did'nt kill some-else while he was as it.
