Burlington and West Burlington School Districts: How these districts cover up their student suicides

The other day, I was thinking about the article that I read months ago about a memorial of a middle school student whom passed away due to a suicide.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Suicide-032412

What I don't understand is the fact that the Burlington and West Burlington School Districts' kept their mouths shut about the other suicides that happened toward several other victims that happened over the course throughout the years.

I recently came across an article by accident when researching student suicides in the general area. This particular thing I found was both shocking and unreal.  In March 22, 1993, a student by the name of Chris Taylor committed suicide due to the bullying issues he faced.  Here is an exert from the Psychology Today Magazine article:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/big-bad-bully

On the first day of spring in 1993, honor student Curtis Taylor took his seat in the eighth-grade classroom he had grown to hate in the Oak Street Middle School in Burlington, Iowa. For three years other boys had been tripping him in the hallways, knocking things out of his hands. They'd even taken his head in their hands and banged it into a locker. Things were now intensifying. The name-calling was harsher. Some beloved books were taken. His bicycle was vandalized twice. Kids even kicked the cast that covered his broken ankle. And in front of his classmates, some guys poured chocolate milk down the front of his sweatshirt. Curtis was so upset he went to see a school counselor. He blamed himself for the other kids not liking him.


That night, Curtis went into a family bedroom, took out a gun, and shot himself to death. The community was stunned. The television cameras rolled, at least for a few days. Chicago journalist Bob Greene lingered over the events in his column, and then he printed letters from folks for whom the episode served largely as a reminder of their own childhood humiliations at the hands of bullies.


This not only hit magazines, it also hit into newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-28/features/9304280301_1_lunchroom-column-object

Because of the reticulated crap that the district refused to handle, a suit was filed against the district on November of 1993.  In 1996, the victim's family received a settlement of $160,000 from the damages caused by the district.  I'll provide an update to the research once I find the exact article of its entirely.

What was more interesting is the fact that this was the third suicide in a four day period!  Chris Taylor attended at the Burlington Community School District while the other two victims attended the West Burlington School District.  Currently, I'm doing research on the names of the other two victims.

The strange part of about doing some of the research is the fact that I cannot find the brief information about the $160,000 settlement and the beginning of the suit in November of 1993.  Clearly, The Hawk Eye is covering up the story too, not just the school district.

Several months ago, there was a reported listed in the newspaper about a death of a high school student.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/obit-Z-Brunken-091311

The night before this article was published, some talk was going around town about a suicide of a BHS student.  I was asked by two students at Notre Dam High School if I knew who it was.  I told them that I didn't have any clue of a suicide going on and that I didn't know who it was.

It is a possibility that Zachery Brunken could have committed suicide, however those details weren't realized to the newspaper due to him being underage.  It would be up to the parent(s) or guardian(s) to release any info to the media about the cause of death of their child.

The school districts and The Hawk Eye are trying to keep the suicides 'under wraps' and only reporting the most recent suicide, even though that particular suicide was almost identical as Chris Taylor's suicide involving the use of weapons, not to mention that Shaw's suicide occurred just three days before the 19th anniversary of Chris Taylor's suicide.  It may even fell on an anniversary on one of the other two students whom committed suicide.  Regardless, I think the reason the cover-up is happening is because it would not only hide their checkered past of handling bullied kids, it would also erase any mentioning about possible lawsuits that can be created to go against the school district for failing to control the problem.

With the thought about Daniel Shaw II, the parents are obligated to sue the school district just as easily as what Chris Taylor's family had done almost two decades ago.  The school district deserves to be punished for not only doing nothing about Daniel's case of suicide, but of the other students whom had taken their lives caused by bullying as well.

In short, here are some copies of articles taken from books, magazines, etc. in regards of Chris Taylor and his suicide.

http://www.mediafire.com/?alpb1qhrpfebu