A 15-year-old secondary school student from Tsuen Wan has killed himself, becoming the ninth student to do so this academic year.
The student, surnamed Ho, was found dead at around 5am on Monday. The police discovered a suicide note at his home. “Unhappy life, want to go to another world,” the note read. According to the police, Ho wrote the note when his mother was asleep, then used the ties to hang himself, Apple Daily reported. Nothing suspicious was found, the police said.
Ho’s father said his son was introverted and did not participate in any extracurricular activities or sports. He said his wife had banned him from playing ball games in the street because she was afraid that he would get into bad habits of behaviour.
He added that Ho spent his leisure time playing online games. “[I] advised him not to always play computer games. Playing computer games will lead to self harm. He really did harm himself,” he said.
Social worker Cecilia Ng Kam-kuen of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) told the Chinese newspaper Ming Pao that teenagers are usually eager to expand their social circles, and Ho might have felt unhappy if he always stayed at home.
This is the ninth student suicide in Hong Kong since school started in September. A study conducted by the HKFYG in August showed that 25% of students have extremely high levels of stress and around 30% said that “they think they’re about to go crazy”. HKFYG interviewed around 4,000 primary and secondary students.
The principal at CNEC Lee I Yao Memorial Secondary School, where Ho was a Secondary Four student, said the school has activated the crisis response mechanism with the Education Bureau and social workers were available to comfort affected students and teachers.
If you are experiencing negative feelings, please call the Samaritans, a 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline, on 2896 0000.
