THIS BAN IS SUICIDAL

Last night 60 Minutes planned to broadcast a story about teen suicides in the Geelong area. The segment was called Searching for Answers. It did not go to air because late yesterday Jeff Kennett and Beyond Blue were granted an injunction in the Victorian Supreme Court that stopped it.They’ll be back in court on Wednesday. Now I do not know exactly what was in the story, although I have some idea because Channel Nine offered me an interview last Friday with the reporter Tara Brown. And I don’t know the exact reason for the court order.

I haven’t seen the story and I doubt 3AW’s Neil Mitchell has either. But this morning  he said he had ‘strong moral reasons’ not to even tell his listeners what the subject was and claimed ‘the decent thing’ for Channel Nine to do would be not to broadcast the story. Ever!

This raises some extremely important, if sensitive, points. How to we handle a disturbing, heart-breaking, teenage phenomenon if we don’t talk about it?
I don’t think banning a television program is the answer. The teenagers at Western Heights Grammar in Geelong know more about this than a TV reporter. And what’s the next step? Ban radio programs? Like Mitchell’s and mine.

Last month Mitchell interviewed Karen Rae, the mother of 14-year-old Chanelle Rae, the latest suicide victim from Geelong’s Western Heights Grammar.

She was the fourth student, or former student at that school to take her own life this year.

Natalie Rowe died in February. She was 14. Zac Harvey died in March. He was fifteen and his girlfriend Taylor Jennsen committed suicide three weeks later. I talked to her father at the time.

Now, the last thing those bewildered, grieving parents needed, or wanted, was to go on radio and talk about their children’s self-inflicted deaths. Chanelle’s mother did because she wanted to warn other parents about Internet bullying. Taylor’s father did because he wanted to warn parents about bizarre websites which actually showed suicide methods.

They wanted to do something to show their children didn’t die in vain. And maybe put people on alert.

Another mother alerted me to a macabre chat room where teenagers made light of the Western Heights deaths and talked of a suicide club. They even named the next probable victim and I alerted Geelong Police.

Channel Nine has pointed out that 60 Minutes had the support and co-operation of the families involved and had consulted with mental health experts in producing the story.

I believe airing this issue, talking about it, getting kids to watch and to listen, is much better than banning a TV show and making it all sound mysterious and illicit and maybe –to a gullible teenage mind –something rebellious and enticing. And that would be tragic.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009