OCR Text |
Show mCm I January 13, : 1998- - Page 9 iBasin Life Uintah Basin Standard Teenage Suicide On Rise Numbers show kids are taking their life by their own hands By Cheryl Mecham became rebellious and disobedient landing her in foster care. Her first attempt to commit suicide came when she brought home a puppy. A disagreement about keeping the dog led to desperate feelings. After returning the pup she swallowed a bottle of pills. She remembers laying on a patch of lawn, knowing she might die. She says she was 15, maybe 16 years old. Without knowing what Sara had done her grandmother came outside to say she had changed her mind, then so did Sara who ran inside and forced herself to throw up over and over. "It's funny ... that puppy was enough to stick around for," Sara expressed. A second and most serious attempt came about two years later when Sara was placed in foster care and denied access to her grandparents during the Christmas holiday. "I took half a bottle of Tylenol, she said. A foster sister suspected the overdose and alerted their guardians and Sara was rushed to receive medical treatment, "my mind started working, I realised that what I was doing was murder ... I couldn't end my life." Saras epiphany remained with her throughout the years. She says it is the reason she will not consider suicide today, no matter what life hands her. Today Sara is married and has a family, and has found the love she was searching for, patterned after one of the nurturing foster families she lived with, phe explained, "I found out what family was all about," Sara expressed. When Sara waa 10 years old she opened the kitchen drawer and examined each knife, trying to decide which one she would use to end her life, which would inflict the least amount of pain. 1 tried to get my parents attention. One day I hung a rope with a loop in it from the willow tree and stood there hoping they would notice me. I wanted them to feel the pain, Sara said, trying to explain the emotional torment of her childhood that lead to an obsession with suicide. "I think I learned about it on TV." She sheds no tears while she unravels a story that begins with her abandonment at the age of two, her adoption by reluctant grandparents, and the years that followed. "My grandfather was abusive, he had a temper, and I found out that I inherited it," Sara confesses. She tells that her grandparents, both in their fifties when Sara was bom, provided basic physical care, but were unable to meet her emotional needs, and at times abuse was directed her way. Sara felt empty at home and unaccepted at school. "When I was a kid I was overweight and the other kids picked on me." Unable to cope with loneliness her thoughts turned to self destruction. "I didn't feel loved, I just wanted the pain to end," she said. The knowledge of physical pain kept her from acting out the thought of killing herself, but as she grew she Outlaw Trail Journal The struggle for law and order in a violent time Why do teens kill themselves? The suicide rate among teens is dramatically increasing, 200 Utah teens took their lives last year - it is now the second leading cause of death in adolescents. Experts agree that teens today face stressful problems that are different from those faced by teens of other generations. Adolescents today participate and experiment in sexual activity and drug use, are victims of loss due to soaring divorce rates and tend to be more fatalistic. Teens suffer more depression than ever before accounting for 60 percent of male suicides and 68 percent of suicide among girls. Emotional pain can overwhelm a teen, yet many floundering to find some sort of self identity will often keep their torment to themselves, leaving close friends and parents unaware. Everyone is in the dark and the teens raw emotional needs remain unmet Shawna Clark, a Utah mother who lost her son to suicide three years ago says "there wasn't much ofa sign at all. He didn't threaten it there was no verbal warning. It depends on the person ... he was a very private individual." While many young people often give no indications that they are contemplating suicide, over half do. Dramatic behavioral changes in mood and the way the teen interacts with other people is symptomatic of emotional torment. Continual irritability, expressions of anger WW-t-.V- . - r ! are killing themselves in greater numbers than ever before, and they also face AGONY OF DECISION-Tee-ns realized never by youth of other generations. pressures today and complaints of boredom, difficulty concentrating, or cooperating, and sudden failure at school also point a finger to trouble. Parents and guardians of teens can help adolescents in crisis experts say. They may begin by taking the threat of suicide seriously and talking frankly about it It is crucial that adults value what teens have to say about their feelings, and that they seek counseling for the child. There are no boundaries in suicide, everybody does it. Social status was once thought to be a factor in suicide, but todays statistics show - M0MmJU8K uft CSMftfr ymturntr ay artM , JlWm Mom ... - - COMPELLING READING The Outlaw Trail Journal is filled with stories, articles and poetry that tell the stories of the violent west and the outlaws who lived and died. Businesses to be held harmless for tax notification delay 781-548- 6. SUU Open House Uintah Basin high school students interested in attending Southern Utah University are being invited to attend an open house Wednesday, Jan. 14 from p.m. at Uintah High School, 1880 W. SOON. For more information call Sandra Lord (435) 865-801- 5. Cancer Support Group There will be a Cancer Support Group meeting at the Uintah Basin Medical Center, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m. in the classroom. Steve Richens will be the guest speaker. All cancer patients, family and friends are invited. Belletristics Club The Belletristics Club will meet Thursday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 inn. at the home of Ruth Haslem, Cedarview. Lucinda Nielson will review the book "The Deep End of the Ocean. For more information call Deanna Fish, or Ruth Haslem 722-928- 3, 353-486- 7. Senior Center Dance The dance scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Crossroads Senior Center in Roosevelt, will be held Friday, Jan. 23 at 8:30 p.m. Its Hollis Hullinger's Birthday so please plan to attend. Starting in February, all future dances will be held the 3rd Friday of each month, through 1998. Book Review Series The staff of the Duchesne County Library would like to invite you to the next "Book Review Series. This will be held Thursday, Jan, 15 at 7 p.m. at the library. Michelle Miles will be presenting the books entitled "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and several others. For more information call 722-444- 1. Story Hour for Preschoolers The Todd Elementary PTA is sponsoring a public Stay Hour for each Thursd',w at 11 a.m in the preschoolers. The Story hour is h Media Center. All 3 and 4 year olds are welcome. Stories are read, crafts made, songs sung, and fun is had by glL For more information call Suzi )R COPY "Sometimes people make judgements about someone who takes their own life, Shawna disclosed, explaining that because her son hadn't left a note or spoken to anyone before the incident - all she could do was guess the motive. She believes today he was suffering from depression when he shot himself. Anyone in a healthy frame of mind wouldnt ever do it," Shawna related, saying that her son's death was not the first or final tragedy, within a year, a first and second cousin individually committed sui- hurt so badly and feel like such a failure as a parent, that your child would do that. Its so painful its something you do not want to talk about it," she said. Shawna said she and her husband "owned the blame," and felt shame for her sons desperate act, however, over time they accepted the realization that their son, and only their son was responsible for his decision to end his life. tMMfey The Uintah Recreation District Community School division and Robin Murray McClellan Dance Academy will be offering the winter nwm of Jazz and Creative dance classes for girls and boys age 8 years and up. Classes will be held at Discovery Elementary School on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. Classes start Tuesday, Jan. 6. For more information call dose. family. You semi-annual- ly Jazz and Creative Dance lower-incom- it is chemical. Our family has a chemical imbalance that leads to depression. The act ofsuicide changes a family forever, Shawna said explaining that the gut wrenching experience is slow in healing - and you are never the same again - not the siblings ut the parents or the extended knit Wild Bunch." Historians Joy T. Horton, who serves as managing editor and Doris K. Burton, associate editor, compile the manuscripts and articles, at times contributed by various historical authors. The Journal is published by the Outlaw Trail History Center, made possible through grants and assistance from the Uintah County Library, Outlaw Trail History Association and Utah State University. The Journal is being sold fire $5 a copy and can be purchased at the Regional History Center in the Uintah County library and various outlets. Once you open up the cover ofthe Outlaw Trail Journal,' (winter 1997 edition) and begin reading the history of the Uintah Basin it will grab you and keep you captivated until the last sentence. It's not surprising. Hie Journal is comprised of historical articles, folk tales and poetry, and informative articles such as a piece about tokens, or "good fora used in place of money in the late 1800s, at saloons and mereantiles. Western history is some of the most colorful and unique as illustrated in the account ofSheriff William Preece of Uintah County who captured some of the wildest outlaws in the west, including Flat from families as it does to e those from middle to families.Static tics show that the method is more exclusive than the act, boys more often use guns and girls usually consume drugs to overupper-incom-e cide. "We think Nose George Curry, a bank robber who often joined up with the "loose By Cheryl Mecham it happens to as many kids Some Utah businesses received late notification of a county option sales tax increase taking effect Jan. 1, an error for which the State Tax Commission said the businesses will not be held liable. Taxpayers who were notified of the sales tax increase after Jan. 1 will not be held liable for the additax they did not tional quarter-cecollect during the few days before they received notification," State Tax Commission spokesperson Janice Perry Gully said today. She noted most businesses were aware ofthe tax change and began collecting the tax correctly on Jan. 1. Gully said the tax that was not collected during this short period was an optional levy authorized for counties by the 1997 Utah LegislaofUtah's 29 counture. Twenty-fiv- e ties adopted the new tax. The Tax Commission uses publications called Tax Bulletins to notify businesses of changes in tax laws or policies. The agency was hard pressed to produce Tax Bulletin 20-9-7 on time because the counties were only required to give the Tax Commission 30 days notice that they had decided to adopt the tax effective Jan. 1, she said. "In the case of statewide sales tax changes such as this, we have to write, print and mail upwards of y 60,000 notifications within a period, she said. Tax Bulletin 20-9-7 began mailing in but about 25,000 did not hit the mail stream until late December and early January. The tax bulletin was posted on the Internet December 15. quarter-cen- t nt 80-da- The mailing was also slowed by a g decision to send Tax Bulletin 7 as part of a regular sales tax return mailing, which added steps in the process. Combining the tax return and tax bulletin mailings was expected to save the state about $20,000 in postage. Because that action slowed notification, tax commissioners decided to provide a small window of relief to those taxpayers who hadnt begun collecting the additional quarter-cent tax due to the delay. Instructions on how businesses should will account for the be included with their next sales tax returns. The companies that received the late bulletin were the state's largest businesses and smallest businesses. The largest businesses, which collect andor pay approximately 80 percent of the states sales tax revenues, "are those least likely to be caught unawares by a tax change, Gully said. "Most ofthose companies rely on one of several national companies whose business is to stay on top of tax changes and notify their clients. Affected firms include auto dealerships, grocery stores, and other large retail operations. The smallest companies are only required to file tax returns annually and collect over the full year - less titan $1,000 in sales tax. All counties except Tooele, Millard, Emery and Kane imposed sales the additional quarter-cen- t tax. cost-cuttin- 20-9- under-collectio- n "I think the most important thing to learn is not to lay blame, of the person who did it on yourself or on others. The sooner you do that the sooner the healing process begins. We all have a tendency to blame ourselves, his grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, anyone who was close to our son felt that they should have helped him, Shawna declared. The Clarks couldn't control the cycle of grief that took hold ofthem. Hiey could, Shawna explained - control how long they were in each stage. "It's hard not to blame, not to be bogged down with unhappy things. You need to feel it all, but you dont have to hang on to it and wallow in it, those feelings don't heal us, she explained. Fortunately for the Clarks they were anchored in strong religious belief that she says, "helped tremendously "They also sought counseling and attended support groups. Shawna found the healing came through love - loving her family and others. There were days when I felt sorry for myself. I'd make myself get up and do something for someone else. While not publicly vocal about suicide, Shawna says. There may not be any sign, but any threat should be taken seriously, because in any kids mind they could be thinking that it is a way out. Our children give us so much they are our greatest joy and our greatest sorrow. Namei have been changed to protect privacy. Three bridges being replaced in Duchesne Co. By Dixie R. Brown The Duchesne County Road Department is putting the finishing touches on three bridges that have been built on the Strawberry River. The bridges, which are located on the road to the Pinnacles area, are just three of nine in the county that are considered in poor or need replaced condition by the Utah Department of Transportation. "UDOT has basically three conditions for bridges in the state", said Duchesne County Commissioner Larry Ross, "good condition, fair and poor. These three bridges fell in what can only be considered as need replaced." UDOT puts the average life span of a bridge at 50 years and all were at least that old. Seniors Making Hie three bridges were built with funds from both the state of Utah ' and the county. The total cost fin each bridge was approximately $400,000 with the county responsible for 20 of the total cost. "We really feel like we have saved the county money in the long run by being in partnership with the state, said Row. They have completed all of the environmental studies and engineering work that we hope to be able to use in the future. The county started work on the structure late last summer and is pleased with the project, according to Ross. Of the other six bridges on the list, five are also located on the Strawberry River. Officials have made no decision on when the other projects will be funded. A Difference Volunteers to coordinate a telephone reassurance campaign By Dixie R. Brown For individuals who are home bound the arrival ofwinter and the New Year make it even more difficult to get around and complete even some of the simplest tasks. During the winter particularly, homebound senior citizens and disabled persons often find themselves wondering - "What do I do if my furnace goes out? or "What ifl need my medicine refilled?" In addition, cold wintery weather can make 'it even more difficult for those who usually visit the homebound to check on their friends and family. Through a cooperative effort with the Duchesne County, senior citizens, tha sheriffs office and the Uintah Basin Association of Governments, individuals in such situations will soon be able to count on a "telephone reassurance dkll. Hie call, which will be made from the sheriffs office, will allow volunteers to check on the homebound resi- ' dents of the county. UBAOG workers and volunteers are currently developing a list of individuals who may be in need of this service. "We want to stress that this is not targeted solely for seniors said UBAOG RSVP Coordinator Diana Jensen. "We want to offer this service to individuals who may be homebound because of an illness or surgery. The reassurance call will be made during a designated time period and volunteers will be able to insure that all the home bound individuals needs are being met. "We look at this program as a way to make sure that if someone needs assistance - especially if Continued on page 16 t I |