BURLINGTON, Vt.—A club at the University of Vermont is hoping a one-day campus exhibit will focus attention on the dangers of college suicides.
About 1,100 backpacks were laid out Tuesday outside the Davis Center as part of an exhibit titled Send Silence Packing to represent the number of college students who take their own lives each year
"It's just not talked about because people don't have enough awareness," said UVM Senior Abby Levinsohn, a co-president of the university's chapter of the mental health awareness group Active Minds, which sponsored the exhibit. "This should be something we're trying to work toward stopping. You can't work on preventing something if it's hushed, or stigmatized."
UVM was the ninth stop for the exhibit, which is due at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., on Thursday.
There were a few hand-lettered signs among the backpacks. One sign read: "67 percent of students who have suicidal thoughts tell a friend first. Listen."
The Burlington Free Press reported UVM officials say the school averages about one student suicide a year.
About 110 of the packs had names, stories and photos attached of some suicide victims, some of which had belonged to the victims. The stories were testimonials written by friends and family members who described the victims and, in some cases, the circumstances of their deaths.
"Eric was intelligent and creative, whose goal was to be a structural engineer," said one note attached to a backpack that belonged to Eric Hagen, who committed suicide in 2006 at age 17. He was a college freshman.
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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com
