A Hong Kong scholar has apologised for his remarks on student suicide, after a concern group said describing the act as “doing something stupid” laid blame on the students and stigmatised mental health issues.
Secondary school students in Hong Kong. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The causes behind student suicide were complicated and should not be attributed solely to students while ignoring other potential factors, the Hong Kong Student Alliance on Student Suicide said Sunday in response to statements from the Life Education Centre of Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education.
During a press conference to announce the results of a life education study last Friday, the centre’s leader Ricky Tse said that “all values essentially come down to considering others.” He said if students thought more about social responsibility, parental expectations and the feelings of others, it would help prevent them from “doing something stupid.”
Tse also said students could gain life education – which teaches students to value themselves and others- by “watching the chicks hatch,” which would also prevent them from “doing something stupid.”
The alliance on Sunday said that placing too much emphasis on others could lead students to neglect their own needs, and students in distress would only blame themselves more.
Ricky Tse of the Life Education Centre of Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education. File photo: Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education, via Facebook.
Tse should not depict suicide as a “stupid act,” as young people’s feelings should be respected whether people agreed with their actions or not, the alliance said. Phrases such as “doing something stupid” or “taking life lightly” should be avoided when describing suicides, it said.
“Tse is a life education expert, he should care about life and have empathy in educating students on life’s possibilities. However, Tse stigmatised student suicide in a public setting and oversimplified this complex issue. The alliance condemns this,” a Chinese statement on the alliance’s Facebook read.
In response to local media enquiries, Tse admitted Sunday that it had been “inappropriate” to describe suicide as “doing something stupid” and “taking life lightly.” He apologised and said the controversy stemmed from statements made at the press conference, which “did not represent the whole truth.”
Due to the time constraints of the press conference and the limited length of news reports, some of the content had been “excerpted,” which may have led to the misunderstanding, Tse said.
A man in Hong Kong wearing headphones. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Speaking on Commercial Radio on Monday, Heather Yeung of the alliance on student suicide said Tse’s apology should be addressed to students and members of the public. The alliance hoped that the incident would remind people to “use words carefully,” and build a safe and comfortable space for students to be heard, she said.
Paul Yip, member of the Health Bureau’s Advisory Committee on Mental Health, said on the same radio programme that the voices of students were sometimes ignored, and society should spend more time on trying to understand the difficulties faced by students.
In some of the suicide notes seen by Yip in the past, students had expressed strong emotions to their family members and apologised for not meeting their expectations, showing that they had thought about their families, he said.
Yip, who is also director of the University of Hong Kong HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, said people should not shy away from using the term “suicide” when assessing the mental health condition of students. Alternatives may leave room for guessing, which was “not ideal,” he said.
Hong Kong secondary school students. File photo: GovHK.
“There have been many statistics showing that if a student had not been thinking about suicide, they would not take their own life just because you use this term,” Yip said in Cantonese.
The authorities also extended and vowed to improve the Three‑Tier School‑based Emergency Mechanism – a cross-departmental effort to help schools identify students at higher risk of suicide and provide early support – which was set up last December.
💡If you are in need of support, please call: The Samaritans 2896 0000 (24-hour, multilingual), Suicide Prevention Centre 2382 0000 or the government mental health hotline on 18111. The Hong Kong Society of Counselling and Psychology provides a WhatsApp hotline in English and Chinese: 6218 1084. See also: HKFP’s comprehensive guide to mental health services in Hong Kong.
