How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?
The awful thing about statistics -- that you can make the numbers say whatever you want -- is also the crux of its virtue.
It is particularly useful when working with small but significant changes.
For example, when we hear that 8 students have been bullied into suicide in one of Congresswoman Bachman's Minesota school districts in the last two years, while 8 may be a small n we understand that to be significant.
Fortunately, with statistical comparison to the greater population (high school age kids in general) we can formulate statements that are also true, and thereby highlight the gravity of the difference.
Looking at 2000 to 2006 era data, the national average suicide rate was 5.25 deaths per 100,000 young people (13-18 y.o.) per year -- or 0.00525%.
In other words, not bloody likely.
What about Minesota (circled red)? Here's a county-by county map:
Take a good look. The suicide rate is so low it's not possible to measure it accurately, everywhere but near mineapolis (those darker areas on the map).
The incidence within the Anoka-Hennepin School District is what is making the news, so let's see where that is:
Look very carefully. The location of the school district is NOT in the same area as the higher suicide rates -- the school district is actually north of there, in a county that has so few suicides each year its rate can't accurately be measured.
And yet, in the past two years 8 of the 12500 kids enrolled in high schools in that district have killed themselves -- and this year isn't over yet. That works out to at least, 0.064% per year.
0.064% also seems like a small number. But when compared with the national average, we find that students are more than twelve times more likey to die by suicide there than at a typical high school in this country. Even when considering that Minesota in general has an elevated rate compared with the rest of the country, it's still almost twice as bad at this particular school district. And when accounting for the fact that this district in the 2000 to 2006 era had so few suicides among high school age kids that the CDC couldn't even make a good rate estimate, this is an astronomical increase.
There are good reasons to believe that this increased rate of deaths is due to a district-wide gag order restricting teachers and administrators from stopping anti-gay bullying. I'm not opening it up here for debate, because Occam ain't even stubbly, yo.
The answer, my friends, doesn't have to be "blowing in the wind". It can be "8 was enough." Call off the can't-say-gay rule, and let's get these kids some support, stat.
It is particularly useful when working with small but significant changes.
For example, when we hear that 8 students have been bullied into suicide in one of Congresswoman Bachman's Minesota school districts in the last two years, while 8 may be a small n we understand that to be significant.
Fortunately, with statistical comparison to the greater population (high school age kids in general) we can formulate statements that are also true, and thereby highlight the gravity of the difference.
Looking at 2000 to 2006 era data, the national average suicide rate was 5.25 deaths per 100,000 young people (13-18 y.o.) per year -- or 0.00525%.
In other words, not bloody likely.
What about Minesota (circled red)? Here's a county-by county map:
Take a good look. The suicide rate is so low it's not possible to measure it accurately, everywhere but near mineapolis (those darker areas on the map).
The incidence within the Anoka-Hennepin School District is what is making the news, so let's see where that is:
Look very carefully. The location of the school district is NOT in the same area as the higher suicide rates -- the school district is actually north of there, in a county that has so few suicides each year its rate can't accurately be measured.
And yet, in the past two years 8 of the 12500 kids enrolled in high schools in that district have killed themselves -- and this year isn't over yet. That works out to at least, 0.064% per year.
0.064% also seems like a small number. But when compared with the national average, we find that students are more than twelve times more likey to die by suicide there than at a typical high school in this country. Even when considering that Minesota in general has an elevated rate compared with the rest of the country, it's still almost twice as bad at this particular school district. And when accounting for the fact that this district in the 2000 to 2006 era had so few suicides among high school age kids that the CDC couldn't even make a good rate estimate, this is an astronomical increase.
There are good reasons to believe that this increased rate of deaths is due to a district-wide gag order restricting teachers and administrators from stopping anti-gay bullying. I'm not opening it up here for debate, because Occam ain't even stubbly, yo.
The answer, my friends, doesn't have to be "blowing in the wind". It can be "8 was enough." Call off the can't-say-gay rule, and let's get these kids some support, stat.