Teens Asked to Share Thoughts On Why Secrets Can Kill

The fourth year of the APA Alliance’s “When Not to Keep a Secret” essay competition came to a finale in May. The first-place winner, Kevin Dillon of Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Ky., was honored at APA’s 2002 annual meeting in Philadelphia and was presented a state-of-the-art computer system.

Just as the previous three winners—Cynthia Ailiff, Amatise Wiley, and Lance Jones—brought their own creative observations to their essays, Dillon did the same with his. He described a situation in which a young person—“Jay”—was very depressed and told a buddy—“Chris”—that he was going to commit suicide. He then went on to provide two endings to what happened next: one, where Chris did not keep Jay’s confidence but told adults, and Jay’s life was saved; and the other, where Chris kept Jay’s confidence, but Jay killed himself. Yes, those were the two possible outcomes, Dillon stressed: Either Chris would have betrayed Jay’s confidence and would have saved his life, or he would have kept Chris’s confidence, and Jay would have killed himself.

“Friends are very important in everybody’s lives,” Dillon concluded. “Trustworthiness is crucial to a friendship. There are times, though, when there are exceptions to that rule. . . .[T]here are instances when trust comes in second place.”

Now that Dillon is back home again in Louisville with his new computer program, it is time to launch the fifth competition—for the 2002-03 school year. This competition is being launched not only by the APA Alliance, but also by chapters of the American Medical Association Alliance and the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program. In addition, Southwest Airlines has agreed to fly at no charge the 2002-03 essay contest winner and his or her parents to the 2003 APA meeting in San Francisco as long as they live in an area serviced by Southwest.

APA district branches are strongly encouraged once again to support the contest. Nine states have participated in the past, and two new states have already signed on for this coming year, said Alicia Muñoz, the immediate past president of the APA Alliance and chair of the essay project. They are South Carolina and Utah.

More information about the contest and the 2002-03 essay contest brochure and poster are posted on the Web site of the APA Alliance at [email protected]/projects.html. ▪