Beyond imagining, beyond understanding. How a 17-year-old high school honor student shocked her parents, friends and teachers by committing suicide. Alexandra Valoras wrote in her journal: “I’m not good enough, I’m worthless.”
Her mother Alexia described her daughter as “such a happy girl, so motivated and so just full of life.” She told CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod:
“There was no pressure that you have to get into this school, you have to do this. She put that pressure on herself.”
One of Alexandra’s friends, Molly Turner, said:
“I think we all carry a little guilt. Because we all thought we knew her so well. And it’s like, how did I not see that?”
What Alexandra’s own mother could not understand was “There was just so much joy in everything she did, and it doesn’t match what was in the journal.”
She went on to say she and her husband chose to go public “Knowing that families are talking to their kids about their mental health, it lets me know that she didn’t die in vain. She’s having such a huge impact. And that feels really good.”
CBS News, 3/17/19
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