Why Steve Dailey's Suicide

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and is the second leading cause of death in people under twenty five years old. Depression, lack of a support network, and feelings of distress are only some of the causes of suicide. In Richard E. Meyer’s article “A Suicide at Age Twelve: Why Steve?” we are told the story of a twelve year old boy named Steve Daily up until the day he decided to take his own life.
Steve Dailey was born in Cincinnati in 1961. His family consisted of his parents, two brothers, and a sister. His father, Charles, was an active in both athletic activities and the Boy Scouts and encouraged Steve to take part in both activities. He had high expectations for his son, especially when it came to football …show more content…
Steve was also an altar boy who performed his duties, but he wasn’t so serious as to not fool around a bit while on the job. People who knew Steve would describe him as someone who didn’t have any close friends and who preferred his own company over the company of others. He was known to have “soft feelings” and would defend those who were being bullied. He was a very serious Boy Scout and had his sights set on becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest Boy Scout rank. In order to do so, he set aside a strict schedule to meet all the requirements to achieve his goal. Steve was so dedicated to the Boy Scouts that he even started working at Scout events and delivering newspapers in order to save up money to go on a trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. With the help of his father, Steve was also able to get a job cleaning up and making catalogs at Charles’ …show more content…
Catherine’s School started a soccer team Steve found that he would rather join the soccer team than play football, which most likely put some stress on Steve since his father was the athletic director at St. Catherine’s. With all the activities that Steve was doing, his grades started to slip despite him previously being an average student. When asked, Steve would tell his parents that nothing was the matter, but his history teacher, Bill Coffey, stated that Steve had begun to lose his sense of humor and his grade in the class began to fluctuate. In the spring, Steve became a starter the intermediate ability baseball team, but his coach said that Steve wasn’t passionate about the sport. Despite Steve wanting to play soccer again, his father told him that he should quit soccer since he wouldn’t be playing it in high school anyways. So Steve set himself on a strict weight loss journey in order to make the cut for the football