I picked this article for a special reason. It is very sad…I know…But I wanted to remind everyone that suicide has a huge impact on so many people. It’s such a big thing.
By Aaron Davis
Brentwood – Exeter High School freshman Conner Ball died by suicide Monday night at his home in Brentwood, police said.
On Tuesday police said Conner’s death was likely the result of self-inflicted harm or asphyxia. The state medical examiner office has the death listed as a hanging suicide.
Connor is the son of John and Tara Ball of Brentwood.
“He was very well-liked and held in such high esteem,” John Ball said. “He was a straight-A student tremendous grades – and had a very good core group of friends that he has had since kindergarten. He was an aspiring filmmaker and was involved in his community. It was just such a shock.
The Brentwood Police Department and ambulance service residence on Northrup drive for a medical call at about 6:55 p.m. on Monday.
Connor was about to be picked up to go to hockey practice when his body was discovered, according to EHS Principal Vic Sokul.
“He was in school a happy kid (Monday). That’s the real difficulty,” said Sokul.
Connor was active in hockey leagues, baseball, the Eagle Scouts, filmmaking and volunteering in his community, He had recently worked on a short film for the New Hampshire Film Festival was about to receive his Eagle scout badge after finishing his project rebuilding Brentwood’s canoe trailer and charting the Exeter River. He was also and avid fan of the Red Sox.
Sokul Dismissed dismissed rumors of bullying as “speculative” and said there was no hard evidence that Connor had been bullied.
“I hope not,” Sokul said. “It would be devastating to know a kid was walking around our school being bullied.”
Ball was in Stratham Police Chief John Scippa’s Boy Scout troop. “I’ve known Connor and his family through Boy scouting for four or five years. He was a wonderful kid from a wonderful family,” he said. “H was very much a happy-go-lucky kid. He was always enjoying himself, and he got along with everybody. He was a very confident kid.”
“He was a fun kid to be around,” Scippa added. “It is such a tragedy.”
Conner was 14 years and two months old and had been attending Exeter High School for two months. In high school, Connor was a member of Team 27, a freshman transition group that connects younger students with upperclassmen.
“We’ve had our arms wrapped around him in the transition program,” Sokul said. “He was a good student and he was engaged. His teachers talked highly of him, and he liked physics.”
Guidance counselors were available to students affected by Ball’s death. His death was formally announced at school Wednesday, where a moment of silence was held in his memory.
An outpouring of prayers and condolences for the Ball family have come from students, faculty and the community. Students wore black Wednesday in respect for Connor and wore Red sox clothing on Thursday in the same spirit.
“He was a giant fan of the Red sox. He knew more stats on than the announcers did,” John Ball said.
Connors freshman English teacher, Jenn Reilly, recalled a conversation she had with Connor recently about the Red sox and their former manager, Terry Francona.
“Sometimes the way kids perceive the world tells us a lot about their character,” Reilly said. “He understood and valued integrity and respect and recognized when others didn’t show those qualities. He knew that you have to treat people right.”
Reilly described Connor as a wonderful kid who was strong and insightful as a student. He made his classmates laugh with his dry sense of humor.
A wide range of students said what a good person he was and how much he got along with students of different groups and backgrounds.
Connor’s English class had been reading Ray Bradbury’s “Farenheit 451” and Reilly said he was “really into it” and liked to approach the difficult concepts about society, individual responsibility and “how we fight against what we know to not be right”.
Memorial pages on facebook have been made to provide a forum for friends and members of the community to offer prayers and condolences to the Ball family.
St. Micheal Parish and Christ Church are helping support grieving members of the community. Seacoast Mental Health also has contact the school to offer help.
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Note: Who would have thought that such a happy person would commit suicide? That’s my reaction to this article. I copied it from my newspaper so you could all read it. Suicide is always a sad and horrible thing. But some people do it to escape pain. I feel for this poor boy and his family and for his loved ones…they must really be hurting… God bless them all during this tough time. :/
