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Palo Alto mourns teen killed on Caltrain tracks
PALO ALTO, Calif. (KCBS) - A community still reeling from three local high school students' suicides on Caltrain tracks this year was shaken again today by news that another young person died on the tracks Monday night.
A southbound train struck and killed a teenage boy on the tracks near East Meadow Drive at about 10:50 p.m.
The death comes on the heels of three incidents since May in which Gunn High School students died in the same area. The most recent was Aug. 22 when a 13-year-old girl who was an incoming freshman was struck and killed.
This morning, Palo Alto police Agent Dan Ryan declined to say whether the teen killed Monday was a student at Gunn, explaining that publicizing details in such cases can contribute to "copycat-ism and the cluster effect."
KCBS' Matt Bigler reports
Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said transit police are still investigating whether Monday's death was a suicide.
"We owe it to the victim as well as to the community to do a complete and thorough investigation before we release any information," she said.
But Ryan said suicide prevention efforts can help stem deaths like Monday's.
Two local meetings on the topic are planned for Wednesday, one facilitated by Caltrain in which community leaders and local mental health professionals will discuss the issue. Participants will include representatives from the Palo Alto Unified School District, the San Mateo County Health Department and Peninsula Health Care District, and various police departments.
That meeting, scheduled for Wednesday morning, is not open to the public.
A separate, public meeting is planned for 7 p.m. at the Cubberley Community Center and will feature a panel of middle and high school students and talks by specialists in child in adolescent psychology from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
The community center is located at 4000 Middlefield Road. The event includes a resource fair that begins at 6:30 p.m.
Both meetings were in the works prior to Monday's death.
Dunn said she does not yet know whether there are plans to increase patrols at the crossing but said transit police patrol regularly and may have stopped a number of would-be suicides this year.
"Our transit police have been able to successfully intervene more than 12 times since the beginning of the year, taking people who were suicidal off the right-of-way," Dunn said.
Caltrain contracts with the San Mateo County sheriff's office, which provides a team dedicated to policing the train tracks.
Anyone seeking help or counseling services can call Adolescent Counseling Services at (650) 424-0852. The Palo Alto organization contracts with the Palo Alto Unified School District to provide a counseling presence at middle and high schools in the district.
The organization's Web site can be found at www.acs-teens.org.
Teens can also call a health, relationship, crisis, and information referral line at (888) 247-7717. The dispatch service directly connects the caller to needed services.
Another local organization, Kara, provides grief support for adults and teens. Kara has also worked with the PAUSD to provide counseling at the schools and can be reached at (650) 321-5272.
For immediate help, especially outside of daytime hours, Santa Clara County operates a 24-hour suicide and crisis hotline. Residents in the north county can call (650) 494-8420, central county residents can call (408) 279-3312, and south county residents can call (408) 683-2482.