Lori was 14 years old when she was baptized at Blue Springs Community Church, a one-room country church only a few miles from her house. A few months later, Lori dropped out of the church. The pastor and his wife visited her several times, but failed to persuade Lori to return to church. Everyone was concerned for her, but no one suspected the real reason for her absence. Lori was pregnant. About a month before she was expected to deliver, Lori tidied her room, emptied her school locker, and wrote a note to her mother:
“You kept asking me if I was OK and I kept telling you I was, but I wasn’t OK. I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve got too many problems. I am taking the easy way out.”
Lori left that day before her mother arrived home from work. She walked to the railroad tracks near her house, knelt between the rails, and folder hands over her little round belly as Amtrak 168 barreled down upon her. The train engineer, a man who had a fourteen-year-old daughter of his own, later said that when he saw Lori, it was too late to stop the train. He watched her cross herself before she died.
Suicide is not a funny thing. People everyday consider “ending it all.” In fact, Suicide is the third leading cause of death among t15-24 year olds. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, eighteen teenagers per day kill themselves in the United States. Every 80 minutes another teenagers commits suicide. Over a hundred teens per week, and the total come to a staggering 6,500 lives lost. Not only that, but over 1000 teens per day attempt to commit suicide. That’s almost 1 teen per minute. 73% of kids admit having thought about suicide. How many of you in here know someone who has talked about or attempted suicide? The statistics show that at least 70% of you know someone who has attempted it.