Mitchell: Youth suicides in south suburbs raise concerns

Two recent youth suicides in suburban Flossmoor have one mother wondering if more could be done to prevent such tragedies.

Stacey Anthony Glasper, 21, was found hanged from a tree in the yard of his home on July 18. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled Glasper’s death a suicide.

Two days later, 15-year-old Marcelle “Marcie” Jonea Gerald was found unresponsive at her home in the same block.

“She came downstairs sometime after midnight where I was on the couch and she just laid in my arms and told me how much she loved me,” said Elizabeth Gerald, 43, the teen’s mother.

“I heard a snoring type sound and thought she was sleeping. Around 6 a.m. I tried to wake her up and I couldn’t,” she said.

“I screamed for my son and he ran down here and told me I needed to call 911. The police got here first, then the ambulance. It’s been like a nightmare.”

Gerald said medical personnel in the emergency room told her the teen ingested a fatal dose of Tramadol, a powerful pain medication. The medical examiner’s office is waiting for a toxicology report and has not yet ruled on a cause of death.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for African-Americans between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although some blacks think suicide and, in particular, suicide by hanging is rare in the black community, that’s not the case.

A recent study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found suicide rates among black children have nearly doubled in the past 20 years.

Between 1993 and 2012, there were 657 suicides among children ages 5 to 11. For black boys, the rate increased from less than two per 1 million to almost 3.5 per 1 million, according to the study.

Gerald said she has no doubts her daughter took her own life.

The teen was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted in January 2014, one day after celebrating her 15th birthday.

Marcelle made her first suicide attempt shortly afterward. Although the teen received counseling from a mental health facility in Matteson and transferred to a different high school, her mother said the trauma was devastating.

“She had been an honor roll student at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. She was a member of the Oak Forest Rainbow Girls. After the assault, she wouldn’t go anywhere by herself. She would scrub herself raw. She just couldn’t take it,” Gerald said.

Roger Denson, an alleged gang member, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault and was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison. He is also required to register as a sex offender for 10 years. That is a shockingly light punishment for what Denson did. Because of his actions, a 15-year-old girl gave up on herself and on her life.

Gerald wants to start the “Marcelle and Stacey” foundation so she can help other teens struggling with depression.

“Stacey used to come down here crying and told me more than once that he was a walking time bomb,” Gerald said.

She advises other parents to pay close attention if their teens start to distance themselves.

“The best thing is to love them, and tell them you love them everyday,” she said.