Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

44. What do you think of the Netflix program 13 Reasons Why ? Is it harmful for young people to view it and did it have an impact on youth suicide rates? M any professional associations and schools sent out warnings to parents about the content in the program and encouraged parents to view the program with their children. Personally, I believe that it’s very unlikely that many parents would have the time to view 13 episodes for season 1 of the program nor unfortunately would they be in a good position to counter the many dangerous messages that were contained in the program. I applaud Common Sense Media, which recommended that no one under the age of 16 watch it. They also recommended that those older than the age of 16 and who had a history of anxiety and depression should not watch it. Season one had as the plot the suicide of Hannah Baker, an adolescent girl who blamed others for her death and made 13 revenge tapes and mailed them shortly before her suicide death. Hannah was unfortunately the victim of bullying, sexting, and rape. Hannah’s suicide was portrayed in a very dramatic and upsetting scene, which I would have not chosen to watch except I was planning a series of webinars on the dangers of the program. (Two years later, Netflix pulled the suicide scene from the program.) The graphic scene of Hannah’s suicide violated the known media guidelines. I happened to be presenting in Tampa, Florida, shortly after the graphic suicide scene aired and was told by local psychiatric hospital personnel that numerous adolescent girls had either attempted exactly the same way as Hannah or were planning their suicides with that method. Netflix waited two years before pulling the graphic scene of Hannah’s suicide despite repeated calls from mental health professionals to do so. Shortly after season one of the program, Google searches about how to die by suicide increased dramatically and we now know that adolescent male suicides increased in the month after the airing of season one. Netflix, the director, and the actors stated that they were starting a very important conversation about suicide. I believe strongly that the biggest problem is that we do not talk about suicide prevention enough in our society; however, they started the conversation with very incorrect messages. First of all, suicide is not about revenge, as suicide is about ending unendurable pain and there’s constriction or tunnel vision. Suicide is not about other people. It was unfortunately portrayed in 13 Reasons Why as a way to get revenge on those that Hannah believed had mistreated her. Suicide is, thankfully, not a common result of being bullied, the victim of sexting, or even being raped. I also found it very upsetting how the program portrayed counselor Porter as he was very apathetic, and when he found out Hannah was the victim of rape, rather than supporting her and responding to her obvious distraught demeanor, he demanded to know who raped her. Hannah told him that it was a senior and he responded with, “Oh good, he’ll be gone in a few months.” Counselor Porter did not contact her parents, nor did he contact any authorities. I worked side-by-side with school counselors for nearly 40 years and believe them to be extraordinary individuals who care deeply about the students they work with, and Netflix did them a big disservice. Adolescents who viewed the program will be less likely to approach school counselors in a time of crisis and that’s a very unfortunate message to give any of our students. All of the adults in the program were portrayed as either clueless, absent, or even mean. The most likable character in the program was Clay. Clay’s mother—in one episode—could see that he was clearly troubled and sat down and was very appropriately in a listening mode with a gentle inquiry and noting that he was troubled and wanted to help him. The program portrayed Clay as saying you can’t help, and he stormed out of the room. One of the single greatest prevention methods in this country is to get young people, who are aware of suicidal and homicidal statements, to go to the nearest 163