News · moment 16 of 18
Three Suicides at Harvard Westlake and Elite Kid Pressure
from K5 & Digidog | The Tim Dillon Show #362 · #362
5 min
News
Tim discusses three student suicides at the elite LA prep school Harvard Westlake, reflecting on the crushing legacy pressure placed on wealthy kids and contrasting it with his own lack of parental pressure growing up.
- Three suicides at Harvard Westlake school over six months—sophomore girl, senior boy, rising junior during summer.
- Tim notes that more recent alumni are colder and describe tremendous pressure on certain kids whose families demand excellence.
- Kids who care deeply about living up to their parents' expectations and legacy—something Tim says he's never related to at all.
- Being rich doesn't make you happy, and rich parents' homes aren't necessarily good—the happiest people Tim knows were middle class.
- Middle class people had consequences and meaning to their decisions but weren't desperate or burdened by legacy names.
- Not getting into an Ivy League school means letting your family down, though the disappointment is often passive-aggressive and quiet rather than openly expressed.
- Rich families don't have raw emotional release; they hold passive-aggressive quiet disappointment that eats away even worse than direct anger.
- The LA community and suicide prevention experts struggle to find a single reason, but Tim suggests maybe there actually is one.