ok i'm back from the bank. i got a call from the newspaper about a letter to the editor i sent yesterday. they wanted to print it but wanted to cut a few things down because it was too long. Here is the letter:
Editor, News-Sentinel:
I and the staff of the Mental Health Association of East Tennessee have some concerns with the Sunday, March 14th story about Michael Harvey. From the comments made by the friends of Harvey, we are concerned that teens and their parents may have some misinformation about teenage depression and alcohol use.
As a mental health educator, many I talk with use the word “depression” to describe situational feelings that are often temporary. Many teens and their parents think that feeling depressed as a teen is “normal.” ANY warning signs of depression are not “normal” or healthy at ANY age.
The signs of depression are:
Social withdrawal
Sadness and hopelessness
Lack of enthusiasm, energy, or motivation
Anger and rage
Overreaction to criticism
Poor self-esteem or guilt
Indecision or lack of concentration
Restlessness, agitation, and irritability
Changes in eating/sleeping patterns
Self-injury
Substance abuse
Thoughts of suicide
If several of these symptoms have been present for 2 weeks or longer, then a person may be clinically depressed and should seek treatment.
Our other concern is about the perception that drinking alcohol in high school is “normal”. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, in 2001, 17.3 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 used alcohol in the month prior to their survey. Also, 10.6 percent surveyed were binge drinkers and 2.5 percent were heavy drinkers. A 1999 survey reports that 52 percent of those who had ever been diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence had also experienced a mental disorder at some time in their lives. What may seem “normal” is really a red flag that more and more teens are using alcohol to possibly self-medicate deep emotional problems.
We would like everyone to have this information so that they may help a loved one who may have depression. For more information, depression screenings, or referrals for treatment, please call the Mental Health Association, (865) 584-9125. The friends, family and entire Loudon County community are in our thoughts.
Here is the article i responed to:
Michael Harvey's death: Friends recall teenager who was 'good person that just snapped'
By ERICKA MELLON, mellone@knews.com
March 14, 2004
LENOIR CITY - Rose Taylor, a senior at Lenoir City High School, had not eaten in more than 24 hours.
The bespectacled teenager had had a weak stomach since learning her good friend 16-year-old Michael Harvey was believed to have fatally shot a Loudon County sheriff's deputy and would not come out of his house.
Early Saturday afternoon, she and two friends gathered on a grassy hill, outside the plush Cabot Ridge subdivision, just down the street from the Palmer Drive residence where Harvey was holed up.
They came for answers. They left in tears.
Around 3 p.m., Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider stood on the same hill and announced that Harvey, a junior at Lenoir City High School, had been found dead, with a gunshot wound to the head, inside the house.
"Oh, God," Taylor said she thought. "I kind of expected it, but I didn't want it."
After Guider spoke, Taylor and her friends, Ciara Hargis and Quinn Fine, exited the media-drenched area and went to O'Charley's for lunch.
Like the rest of Loudon County, they tried to cope with the tragedy of two young lives lost.
Deputy Jason Scott was 24.
And they tried to make sense of what led the Michael Harvey they knew - a good friend who had battled with depression but had a good sense of humor - to this end.
"Repressed emotions, that would be my best guess," Taylor said. "He would tell you he was ticked off about something, but he wouldn't talk about it.
"If you don't have a way to release your emotions, you eventually just crack."
Hargis said Harvey had spent some time at Peninsula Hospital, which offers inpatient mental health care.
"I knew he had some problems with depression, and that's normal enough. But he was in Peninsula for a little while," Hargis said.
Dwight Van de Vate, chief deputy for the Knox County Sheriff's Office, said Friday that Harvey "apparently had been drinking (Thursday) night."
Harvey's assistant manager at Little Joe's Pizza in Farragut said he left the restaurant around 10 p.m. and told him he planned to rent a movie and watch it.
Taylor and Hargis said they did not hang out with Harvey on Thursday night, but they heard "he was drinking a bit, a little bit," Taylor said.
Both teens said Harvey did drink alcohol, but they had no reason to worry about it. He was an intelligent teenager who loved movies, music and video games, they said.
"It wasn't a serious thing," Taylor said of his drinking. "He didn't drink very much. He drank like most high-schoolers drink."
"For him, it was a game," she added. "He kind of used life as a game. I don't know if that was a way for him to cope with things. He didn't take very much seriously."
Charlie Sharp, who moved into Cabot Ridge in November, also waited on the hill Saturday afternoon for news. Like Taylor, he expected officers would find Harvey dead.
"Of course, you hope the person comes out alive, but this sheriff has shown great restraint. They're to be commended," Sharp said.
"As bad as it sounds, the life of a 16-year-old is not worth the life of another police officer," he added.
Scott Parker, 44, spent part of Saturday afternoon doing construction work on a house in the Hidden Cove subdivision about a mile from the Harvey residence. Both homes overlook Fort Loudoun Lake, which couldn't help but sparkle under the weekend sun.
Lamenting the shooting death of deputy Scott, Parker reminisced about days past, when guns didn't seem to cause so much harm.
"Times have changed so much," Parker said. "I graduated from high school in 1977. I'd go squirrel hunting some days before school. I'd carry a shotgun and leave it in the backseat of the car sitting in the school parking lot. It's just, times have changed. And it's a sad change."
At Little Joe's, co-workers cried and hugged each other outside the restaurant after hearing Harvey was gone.
"I don't even think it's really sunk in yet," said Chris Inklebarger, 20, who was working at the restaurant during his spring break from the University of Georgia. "I want people to know that he was a good person that just snapped one day. He wasn't a bad guy."
Wayne Miller, the superintendent of Lenoir City Schools, said Harvey had no discipline problems in school.
"This was the kid next door," Miller said. "He was reasonably quiet and reasonably polite, just your average high school student."
Miller also spoke highly of Harvey's parents. His father, Frank, is an assistant district attorney for Loudon County. His mother, Ann, was formerly the executive director of United Way of Loudon County.
"They're wonderful people. They're caring and compassionate," he said. "I can only imagine the trauma they feel."
Lenoir City High School will have the school's two psychologists available to talk to students on Monday.
"I just want to emphasize that if young people feel the stress or pressure to succeed, there's absolutely staff members to help them through," Miller said. "Don't be ashamed to step forward."
Taylor and Hargis said they plan to wear black bands around their arms to honor their friend at school.
"He's our fallen comrade," Taylor said.
