Five student suicides in New York accentuate the COVID-19 crisis

New York, Feb 17 (EFE) .- Three recent suicides of New York public school students in the last three weeks have brought the number of schoolchildren who have taken their own lives to five this year, increasing the crisis caused by the distance education that the state lives.
These five deaths contrast with the four that occurred in all of 2020, according to figures from the Department of Education.
The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, on Wednesday linked the unusual number of deaths with the isolation that students have experienced since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Many young people feel really isolated with the absence of a regular rhythm in their lives,” De Blasio said at his daily press conference. “Particularly due to the absence of classes for some of them,” he added.
“The growing desperation of minors in New York City due to the lack of a routine with which they have grown up makes the reopening of educational centers increasingly urgent,” he said.
“This is the reason why it is imperative to get back to school as quickly as possible,” insisted the mayor.
In New York, high schools will open their doors next week, although only half of them offer all their classes in a face-to-face format.
Primary schools returned to the classroom in December, but there is still no set date for high school students to do the same.
The Counselor of Educational Centers, Richard Carranza, already referred to the increase in suicides among young students in a meeting with the Council of the Education Community last week, in which he pressed for a general opening of schools.
The New York Department of Education has declined to specify the age or other personal information of the deceased to preserve their privacy.

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