SECAUCUS —Last month, a Secaucus teenager committed suicide, causing grief in a community who loved the young soccer star. Now, his parents wonder if an acne drug led to the tragedy, as it has for other teenagers across the country.
According to a story posted Wednesday night on the Record of Hackensack’s website:
Derek Lagos was a soccer star who dreamed of going pro, a good student on his way to a prestigious prep school and a popular kid who made friends even with rivals on the playing field.
The 13-year-old Secaucus Middle School student had no history of depression, according to his parents, who said he was by all accounts a happy, focused kid. However on Oct. 12, after a normal day of school — capped off by light-hearted joking with friends on the bus — Derek killed himself moments after arriving home.
That evening, police asked his mom if he was on any medication. Immediately, her thoughts went to Derek’s acne medication Sotret and the dermatologist’s mention that the son of a politician had committed suicide while taking the name brand Accutane.
“Something definitely snapped. There was no note,” said Ingrid Schultze-Lagos, Derek’s mother. “It was completely unlike Derek. If Derek would have been in his right mind, he would have never, never imposed this pain on us, on the community, on the family, on the friends.”
….Secaucus police recently said they found nothing on Derek’s iPod, cellphone and computer to explain the suicide, reinforcing Schultze-Lagos’ belief that the drug is to blame.
For the Reporter’s previous coverage of this tragedy, click HERE.