Several dozen students and staff were at Falmouth High School Thursday, for counseling and companionship after a fellow student died late Wednesday in an apparent suicide at his Falmouth home.

“We will be here for as long as we need to be today, and will open tomorrow as well if necessary,” Superintendent Geoff Bruno said in an email Thursday morning. He said counselors and school staff had been at the high school until about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday after hearing about the boy’s death.

“I regret to inform everyone that we lost one of our high school students today,” Bruno said in a message Wednesday to school staff and families. “Our thoughts and actions are with our student’s family and friends.”

The Press Herald has not identified the student because his family has not decided whether they want to speak publicly about his death.

About 35 students and 20 staff members came to the school, Bruno said later. The school will open again Friday from noon to 3 p.m. for students, families and staff.

A Facebook post from a fellow Falmouth High School student described the teenager as “kind, caring, (and) compassionate,” and remembered how he helped others and “volunteered his efforts wherever and whenever they were needed.”

“In these next few days, weeks, months, even years, take all of that kindness we saw (him) embody, and spread it around the school,” the student wrote. “If you see someone you don’t know or a new student at school, start a conversation with them, welcome them in as we all know (he) would have done. In times of darkness, reach out to those around you for support.”

The post was “liked” more than 800 times and shared by more than 200 people.

Police found the boy’s body just outside his home, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Falmouth Police Chief Edward Tolan said. Police had closed roads and evacuated nearby homes because they heard a gunshot as they were responding to a report of a teenager threatening to harm himself.

Tolan said the boy posted messages on Facebook about harming himself and an unidentified person notified the boy’s father, who contacted police. The boy’s parents were both at work.

Tolan said his officers knew there were guns in the home, so they called in the county’s tactical team and evacuated four or five homes in the immediate area.

 

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