Jason Marston

Lee St. Hilaire

Bryant Donovan

Troy Ellis

Chad Garwood

All students at Winthrop High School.

All members of the Winthrop Ramblers football squad.

All committed suicide in the last two years.

Suicide is not painless. Not in the decision-making, in the doing or in the aftermath.

Friends and families of these young men, and those of Glenn Hayford – another Winthrop football player who committed suicide in the 1990s – have suffered terribly. They are confused and desperate to figure out why these teens would give up on life, why this town could let them.

That’s not blame. That’s reality.

Nationwide, young white men commit suicide more than women or men of other ethnic groups. And, in Maine, the rate of suicide consistently surpasses that of the nation. It is the second-leading cause of death for Mainers age 19 to 24 years.

While the national rate of suicide among teens is dropping, Maine is not following along.

That signals a problem here, one that must be tackled aggressively.

In Winthrop, where school officials certainly haven’t been lax about tapping available programs and support networks for teens, the suicide rate is accelerating.

After Hayford’s death more than a decade ago, the next student-athlete suicide was Jason Marston in April 2003. Then Lee St. Hilaire nearly a year later, in February 2004. On Jan. 8, 2005, Bryant Donovan died and, three days later, so did Troy Ellis. Chad Garwood died June 11. The last three suicides were committed in less than six months’ time.

This high rate, which horrifies and angers the people of Winthrop, doesn’t mesh with Maine’s reputation for being proactive in combating teen suicide.

Maine is among five states recognized by the National Governors Association for raising awareness of suicide as a public health concern and developing statewide suicide prevention policies.

Maine’s Youth Suicide Prevention Program, adopted during Gov. Angus King’s administration, is designed to reduce youth suicide. One of the program educators lives in Winthrop.

The program, which acknowledges that suicide is preventable, provides training and information to schools, public safety and other support networks, and helps guide these groups on effective suicide prevention methods and practices.

What could really help the work the MYSPP does is for us – all of us – to toss the long-standing stigma that suicide is a personal failing of parents and children and talk openly about the fears, anxieties, frustrations and unhappiness that are part of working through and surviving our teen years. Talk and personal support, not pamphlets, are the most important tools we have to prevent these tragedies.

Suicide is connected to a great many things, including substance abuse, mental disorders, trauma, illness, aggressive tendencies, family history, feelings of hopelessness and isolation, lack of support from communities and families, barriers to health care, cultural beliefs, finances, jobs and sexual orientation. These categories crisscross our lives, so the threat of suicide is ever-present and must be acknowledged openly, aggressively and honestly.

It is, as 30,000 people a year who do commit suicide nationwide prove, a real life threat.

The people of Winthrop, who jointly grieve for the dead student-athletes, are working hard to reverse the suicide danger. And the state is seeking funding through the Harvard Injury Control Resource Center for suicide experts to study what’s going on in that town. They cannot succeed in isolation, though.

This is society’s problem. Not Winthrop’s problem.