It was just last May, when a 19-year-old college student at Ambedkar University committed suicide due to the growing level mental stress she had from exams. Teen suicide and depression are becoming serious problems. Each year in the U.S., thousands of teenagers commit suicide, and it is the third leading cause of death for 15-24-year-olds.

On Monday, Mar. 14, members of the community engaged in a discussion that took place in the Staples cafeteria on the movie “Race to Nowhere.” The movie was a documentary about the stressful lives of teenagers, how it is negatively effecting their health and how adults pushing their children too far needs to be a discussion.

The administration encouraged all teachers and parents to attend the viewing that took place on Mar. 8 at Staples. Approximately 200 people attended the showing.

Among the many parents that attended the community discussion, there were five panel members who were experts in their own field, and answered questions from the crowd. The panel members included Brian Fagan who is Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in Westport, Susan Rayfield who is a licensed marriage and family therapist, Matthew Dempsey who is the Assistant Director of Admissions at Fairfield University, Elaine Schwartz who is the Director of Guidance at Staples and Victoria Caposey, a guidance counselor at Staples.

Members of the Teen Awareness Group (TAG) at Staples attended the meeting as well. Will Bitsky ’12 feels that the movie was effective, due to the important message it conveyed, which he believes parents need to see.

“The movie has opened up a dialogue, and has given us the opportunity to speak directly to parents about what is really bothering us within the school system of getting into the best school,” Bitsky said.

Schwartz felt that the movie highlighted a lot of the problems that students at Staples are facing every day.

“It’s really sad to see young students so stressed out all the time.” Schwartz said. “Children just get more compounded as they get older by the whole college process…especially in this community, where a lot of the stress comes from kids getting into the best schools.”

Schwartz also feels that the competitiveness of the community plays a significant role in the stress that so many students have.

“[It’s] a very competitive community. It’s a community where everyone’s asking about each others SAT scores, grade point averages, and where their child will be applying to. This kind of issue [that is depicted in Race to Nowhere] is very specific to communities like Westport.”

During the panel Caposey said that she constantly sees students in her office hung up over a grade like a C, as if someone had died.

“A C is ok in my eyes. I have had many students in my office breaking down because they’ve seen a C, and it happened just today,” Caposey said.

As the movie and discussion suggested, although the college process is competitive, it is crucial that there be a lot more attention focused on how the students are coping with the process.