An 11-year-old boy and a 17-year-old Secondary 6 student jumped to their deaths from buildings in Tai Po, New Territories, and Kowloon’s Yau Tong respectively on Thursday, and an 18-year-old schoolboy was saved after jumping into a river.
At 7:55am, the 11-year-old was found lying on the grounds of Kwong Yau House in Kwong Fok Estate in Tai Po, Ta Kung Pao reported. Police believed he had jumped from 16th floor of the building. He was sent to hospital but was pronounced dead.
It was understood that the boy had been upset about his parents’ unhappy marriage and the death of his grandmother in April, Apple Daily reported.
At 11:30 the same morning, a 17-year-old male student jumped from the rooftop of the Domain Mall in Yau Tong. Paramedics took him to hospital but he was pronounced dead.
At 4pm, an 18-year-old boy wearing a school uniform jumped into the Lam Tsuen River in Tai Po. He was rescued by three passers-by and sent to hospital for medical treatment.
The teenager told police that he had been under great pressure with his studies.
Social-welfare-sector lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun accused Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at the Legislative Council on Thursday of lack of concern about youngsters committing suicide.
A total of 72 students committed suicide in the past two years in the city, Shui said, adding: “72 is not a number, they are stories, they are lives.” He said Lam only focused on economic development in her first Policy Address, Ming Pao Daily reported.
Lam told Shiu he didn’t have to speak so emotionally, saying she had been concerned about the issue for a long time since she was the director of the Social Welfare Department.
The Samaritans run a 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline +852 2896 0000 or e-mails can be sent to jo@samaritans.org.hk.
It is not easy to raise young children as they need good example and learned the meaning of life as early as possible. Chinese have very good reason to work hard and thrive with all the lessons learned through thousands years of recorded history. Chinese despise and disown history is depriving their children of access to those wisdom.
Kasi dito masyado nilang pressure ang mga bata, parang walang kalayaan
Agree ako sayo kabayan… Pressure na sa school, pressure pa sa extra activities….
Pressure pa sa bahay
That’s true
Dito kase subra pagud mga bata after school miron pang mga activities, walang pahinga utak sa mga bata. Kahit sa oras ng vacation ang dami activities ayaw nila ipahinga ang utak sa kanilang mga anak.
Why are we pushing our kids to become a computer in an education system/traditional thinking becoming increasingly obsolete. The jobs our kids are doing probably do not exist now and why are forcing our kids to become robot when robot can do them better
Don’t pressure your kids! Pushy parents can cause children to become anxious and unsuccessful loners
How sad… very alarming ung suicide cases. Sobra kc competition.
they are very stressed ma’am from there studies that’s why they need extra care and love from parents…and I hope in school the teacher will teach how precious our life it’s a God’s gift…im a house helper and I saw how many homework and activities they have they sleet late and wake up early they need a break after school that’s,why I always hug the two children of my employer and tel them that it’s ok for there good and brighter future…
????????????
As i observed here in hk most of the students are presure in their studies… Why not give the Saturday and Sunday for them to have a rest have fun… Bonding with the family….. So that they can relax,, its so sad to hear a 6 years old above full of activities monday to Sunday…. They need love, care,attention from their parents not from the helpers.. That’s why most of kids are more closer to the helpers because of TLC…..that supposed from the parents….. May u rest in peace….. This is a wake up for the parent here in hongkong DON’T PUT SO MUCH PRESSURE TO UR KIDS…
Irish Tadian Manabogan your employeer is lucky to have you
Pressure at school and pressure at home…i observed how most parents here in hk wants their kids to have perfect scores and perfect spellings, grammars & etc plus their extra curricular activities…
Teach them to be creative right?
Manny Cheung you cannot teach creativity, it is inate in every child. The HK system and HK parents smash the creativity out of their children in exchange for obedience and the possibility that their child might land a good (ie VERY well paid) job. The culture in schools is to brush the problems under the carpet, the result of this is that nobody learns from the experience and do not improve in identifying at risk children and hopefully preventing more harm.
Too true sadly. Hk parents often fail to realise that they are only making poor admistrators working long hours and generally poorly paid out of their kids and forget that at times, kids learn more through the games and fun they have. HK parents are far too often lazy in my opinion although they think they are smart… They think that sending their kids all day long to activities with their maid that they are making a tremendous effort without realising that the small and more tedious things they do with the kids are worth a billion more than the pressure they put on the kids to get top mark etc they prefer to bury themselves under work till late rather than actually spending the time with the kids. too sad that a lot wake up one day to realise that their kids are gone