In the 1980s, the high school was perhaps most known for the suicides that occurred in 1984. Six teenagers committed suicide, with five of them doing so in the community of Clear Lake, and with the final one being a Clear Creek High School student.[4] From August until October of that year, two Clear Lake students and three former Clear Lake students killed themselves.[5]
Loren Coleman, author of The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, wrote that "Needless to say, the community was alarmed by the deaths and feared more."[6] The New York Times reported that there were rumors of a suicide pact that included up to thirty students but that this story turned out to be "a lark." Psychologists were sent to the school to deal with any residual stress that resulted from these events.[5] In January 1985 area police department stated that since October 1984 there had been no suicides of teenagers. In 1985 Scott Lally, a 17-year-old fourth year student who worked for the school newspaper, stated "It's funny but you really don't hear the suicides talked about that much any more. But the kids who are having trouble now have a place to go."[7]
B. Comstock, the author of "Youth Suicide Cluster: A Community Response" in Newslink, argued that the "wide press coverage" and the "abundance of volunteers eager to help but not organized to do anything" were problematic.[8] He stated that there was a lot of panic and confusion in the Clear Lake community and that the residents of the area were not happy with the media presence.[8]
