15-Year-Old Taiwanese Student Jumps From 14-Story Building Over Pressure to Do Well in School

A 15-year-old Taiwanese student fell from the roof of a 14-story building to her death on September 6, according to Taiwan News. Police have ruled her death as a suicide after finding a note from in her backpack that read “That’s me, don’t look for me”.

The girl was identified by her surname, Wu; she was a student from the prestigious Taipei school First Girls High School. Dr. Chang Li-Ping, principal of the institution, was shocked after hearing about the incident and mentioned that they didn’t see any signs of suicidal tendencies from the girl.

Furthermore, principal Chang was puzzled since the school just started a new term five days prior to the incident. Even the girl’s parents didn’t expect that their daughter would resort to suicide as they mourned in grief, exclaiming “our daughter should have been at school. How could this happen?”

However, Wu’s parents revealed that their daughter might have succumbed to academic pressure and couldn’t take the stress any longer. In addition, the parents believed that their daughter might have felt like she couldn’t meet the school’s expectations for academic success, as she was a new student and had struggled to adjust.

The school reminded students that they offer counseling to any child to discuss any issues they might have.

Meanwhile, suicide cases stemming from academic pressure have been just as prominent in China; Hong Kong has reported cases of high school students as young as 13-years-old killing themselves over grades. According to the Washington Post, there had been at least five high school students who committed suicide in a single month’s time.

The report also mentioned that an average of 23 cases of suicide occur in Hong Kong per year due to students being subjected to overwhelming academic pressure.