Two casualties of suicide: One student. One veteran.

I received a call Wednesday morning from a reader complaining about the coverage news operations in town, including this one, gave to the suicide of a high school student in Tempe.

"It's all over the news and it's in the paper, everywhere," he said, "and yet you do practically nothing about all the veterans who have killed themselves."

It's not true. But people see what they want to see.

The tragic death of 18-year-old Marcus Wheeler from Corona del Sol High School is getting a lot of media attention. That's true.

But there also has been plenty of coverage concerning the crisis of veterans and suicide.

I've done a number of columns about local veteran Daniel Somers, who served two tours in Iraq, suffered a traumatic brain injury and returned to the states with post-traumatic stress disorder. After failing to get the help he needed at the VA Daniel took his own life.

His wonderful parents, Howard and Jean, have worked tirelessly since then to improve conditions for vets. That issue has received lots of media attention.

And it's getting more even today, as we have learned that a local vet killed himself this past Sunday in the parking lot of the Department of Veterans Affairs Phoenix Regional Office.

According to an article by The Arizona Republic's Paul Giblin, the man was 53-years-old. He left a note in the truck that he drove to the facility's parking lot, where he shot himself. But for now there aren't many other details.

The information will come out eventually and be used to advance the story of an ongoing crisis of veteran suicides that the VA has been trying to deal with.

It's a different situation when the news of a suicide concerns a popular high school student like Marcus Wheeler.

In a way, that's the kind of information media people would prefer not to print. Not to broadcast.

But it's impossible to shield our kids from news like this.

Not now.

Not with the Internet.

I can choose to not describe exactly what happened at the school but it's naïve to believe that news of the young man's death wasn't out there, everywhere, minutes after he took his life, word having spread like wildfire on social media among young people who are so adept at finding and dispersing information.

My heart breaks for Marcus and his family.

And for the family of the lost veteran.

We might never come to understand the reasons either of them did what they did. They were in crisis and we lost them.

High school, like war, has its causalities.

In response to the suicide at Corona del Sol, local officials established a 24-hour crisis line. The number is 1-800-203-2273. Also available for Arizona teens is the Teen Lifeline at 602-248-8336. And there is Mercy Maricopa's 24-hour crisis line: 1-800-203-2273.

Veterans or family members concerned about them can call the VA's Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800- 273-8255.

There is plenty of online help available as well.

We worry in my business about the potential negative effects of reporting news like this. There's a fear that it could do more harm than good, that our most vulnerable brothers and sisters might see news reports and come to believe that suicide is a way out. I'm troubled by that notion. I always have been. But it's an outdated sentiment in the information age. That decision is out of our hands.

Besides, individuals in crisis don't need us to shield them from the news. They need us to quit shielding our eyes … from them.