Netflix's "13 Reasons Why" is dogged by a couple of controversies due to its vivid portrayal of teenage suicide. The streaming service along with its stars are however quick to defend the show amid the criticisms from experts. Kate Walsh who played the role of suicidal Hannah Baker's mother also recently asked schools to allow their students to see the series as it can educate them on how to eliminate teen suicide.
Mental health experts and psychologists previously gave their opinion about the controversial show saying it poses the danger of inspiring the teens to think of committing suicide. Following the statement that these professionals released, school districts are now issuing warnings to parents to stop their children from seeing the dark mystery drama.
The Montclair Public Schools District's Andrew Evangelista has personally penned a letter to the parents of children attending the 11 schools under them. The mental health and harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) Coordinator wrote to warn on the show's portrayal of suicide on the serial scenes that might affect the teenage viewers' thoughts.
"While the show is fictional, the series is extremely graphic, including several rape scenes, and raises significant concerns about the emotional safety of those watching it," writes Evangelista on the letter. He revealed that he watched the show himself as "13 Reasons Why" quickly grew to popularity among teens. As soon as he saw the 13 episodes of the Netflix show, he said that he felt something was wrong about the lack of mental support that the main character had in the story.
Albeit debates wrapping the "13 Reasons Why" Netflix has previously defended the show saying they were mindful of the show's extreme plot and that they carefully considered the advice of medical professionals during the script writing process. Also to help give light to the confused audiences, actress Kate Walsh recently granted an interview to share her personal thoughts about the Selena Gomez co-produced series.
Walsh played the role of being a mother to Hannah Baker. She said that the show was indeed with a heavy message and has wrestled with her thoughts multiple times before accepting the offer. She also revealed that she talked to mothers who can relate to the story so that she can deliver her role fairly and truthfully.
After finishing "13 Reasons Why", Kate Walsh said she believes that the schools should demand the parents to let their teen kids watch the show as it raises awareness on different social issues being battled especially by the youth today. The topics on sexual assault, school bullying, LGBTQ issues, racial discrimination, suicide, depression and mental health issues are the areas being brought to light by the Netflix series according to Walsh. She also said that talking about what those are in an educated way will actually prevent them from happening.
