(antiMusic) My Chemical Romance have responded to claims that their music somehow inspired a 13 year-old UK girl to commit suicide. Earlier this month an inquest was held where the girl's parents and coroner Roger Sykes testified that the girl, Hannah Bond, was influenced by her love of emo music, specifically My Chemical Romance.
It was also revealed that the girl had a history of self-harm, her father said that Bond had hurt herself before and claimed that it was an emo initiation ceremony. The coroner Sykes testified, "the emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing." The girl reportedly told online friends of her plans to hang herself and live on in the afterlife as a member of "The Black Parade" - the title of a My Chemical Romance album.The band has responded to this story with this statement: "We have recently learned of the suicide and tragic loss of Hannah Bond. We'd like to send our condolences to her family during this time of mourning. Our hearts and thoughts are with them. My Chemical Romance are and always have been vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. As a band, we have always made it one of our missions through our actions to provide comfort, support, and solace to our fans.
"The message and theme of our album 'The Black Parade' is hope and courage. Our lyrics are about finding the strength to keep living through pain and hard times. The last song on our album states: 'I am not afraid to keep on living' – a sentiment that embodies the band's position on hardships we all face as human beings.
"If you or anyone that you know have feelings of depression or suicide, we urge you to find your way and your voice to deal with these feelings positively."
Short editorial comment: While anyone would feel for the parents of a teenager that takes their own life, this isn't the first time where a suicide has been blamed on music. If music truly was the cause of suicide then millions of teenagers would be inspired to kill themselves each year. There are usually other mitigating factors that lead children to resort to suicide. Often times a mental disorder. In this case, the girl had a history of hurting herself and apparently fantasized about committing suicide. Take the case where Ozzy Osbourne was sued by parents who blamed his song "Suicide Solution" for inspiring their son, John McCollum, to shoot himself. McCollum reportedly suffered from clinical depression.
Coolnurse.com had this to say about teen suicide: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 to 25 in the United States. The following statistics were taken from a recent survey of college and high school students by the CDC.
Twenty-seven percent of high school students said they had "thought seriously" about killing themselves during the past year. Eight percent said they had actually tried to kill themselves.
Ten percent of U.S. college students admitted serious thoughts about suicide. Seven percent had a suicide plan.
More than 30,000 Americans commit suicide each year, and 5,000 of these people are teenagers.
Although one of every eight teenagers suffers with depression, the diagnosis is often missed, as depressive symptoms are often mistaken for the typical 'ups and downs' of teenage life. Even in societies where suicide is illegal or taboo, people still kill themselves.
Most suicides occur in the home between the hours of 3 PM to midnight. There are 30 to 50 times as many attempted suicides as completed suicides. Four times as many males complete suicide than females, but female teens attempt suicide twice as frequently as male teenagers.
People who talk about suicide often commit suicide. All talk about suicide should be taken seriously. People often have opposing feelings about whether or not they want to die, so there is always hope that they can change their minds if they receive professional help.
Click to read more on the CoolNurse.com article
