Behavior: Could Suicide Be Contagious?

Cheerleaders wearing the school's gold-and-green colors led the emotional pep rally. More than a thousand pupils--almost the entire student body--assembled, many of them wearing paper hearts with the words CHOOSE LIFE. They hugged one another, cheered their athletic teams and sang We Are the World. The lyric "We're saving our own lives" understandably brought many to tears: the rally had been called to calm the student body after three youths at Bryan High School on the outskirts of Omaha committed suicide within five days.

The three knew one another only vaguely. They were ordinary youngsters with no apparent problems who lived...