Teen Suicide Prevention Campaign Comes to Long Beach

A parent whose child committed suicide and a young adult who tried to commit suicide will speak at the Martin Luther King Center May 5 in order to spread awareness and understanding about this serious issue.

The occasion is the Iron Gate Cares Foundation’s “Let It Go” campaign that educates young people and parents about prevention of teen suicide, an event that comes days before National Prevention Week (May 20-26).

While Iron Gate typically conducts various charity events from toy drives to candle walks and brings its speakers to Long Island schools, Saturday’s event, from 3 to 8 p.m., will be the first of its kind for the foundation. Iron Gate and One Man Army Marketing & Promotions will present the Long Island Celebrity Charity Basketball Game. There will also be two youth basketball games with a dance performed by dancers from the MLK Center at halftime.

Popular DJs will host and there will be free giveaways and contests, and Sarah P, a recording artist from Bellmore, will perform her signature record “Let It Go.” A lucky Long Beach High School senior will have the opportunity to win a $500 gift certificate to buy a prom dress at Estelle’s, which is sponsored by the Iron Gate Cares Foundation. Admission will be a $5 donation, which will go to the foundation and the MLK Center.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death among youths between the ages of 10 and 24, and about 4,400 lives are lost each year, . A relatively unknown fact, though, is that more youth survive suicide attempts than actually die. Across the United States, roughly 149,000 teens and young adults are treated in the emergency room for self-inflected injuries.

After Iron Gate founder Rodney Fischetti had a close friend who lost his nephew to teen suicide, he started the “Let It Go” Teen Suicide Prevention campaign. “We did some research and found out that not many people on Long Island were really focusing in the issue, and New York State has a relatively high rate of teen suicide,” Fischetti said.

Fischetti brought the “Let It Go” campaign to schools throughout the area to speak to students and their parents and to listen to their thoughts and concerns. He said the results were overwhelming and it made him realize that teen suicide was a much more significant problem than he originally thought.

In 2009 the CDC reported: “A nationwide survey of youth in grades 9-12 in public and private schools in the United States (U.S.) found that 15 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide.”

Bullying through different forms of social media has played a part in teen suicides. In the last few years, there have been numerous reports from all over the country of teens killing themselves because the bullying never stopped.

“Different types of bullying is on the rise, it is not necessarily the same old bullying anymore,” said Ar-Rahman Buskey, the MLK’s director of programs. “You have the Internet, Facebook, texting that goes back and forth. The event is about getting kids in this community more aware about these issues.”

Fischetti said that bullying is prevalent throughout all communities, despite race and economic status. “The main goal is to provide a resource and a platform,” he said. “So many of our children out there want to speak, but do not have anyone offering their ear. And we want to be that ear.”