On December 13, Logan Paul, a widely followed Youtuber, posted a video of a dead body he found in Japan’s Aokigahara Forest. This video went viral, and strong responses on all forms of social media flooded the internet. 19 days after uploading the ‘suicide forest’ video, Paul published a written apology, and followed it the next day with a video.

“He’s just doing everything he can to get views,” senior PJ Schenk said. “I feel like he only did it because he had to do it. If people thought it was really cool, then would have just been completely fine with it. I think he deserved what he got.”

The Aokighara Forest, colloquially known as the “the perfect place to die” or the “suicide forest,” is the second most common place or people to go to take their life. The amount of bodies found in the forest has been increasing since the 1950s, with 105 bodies found in 2003.

“I feel like what he did was wrong but he should just be punished for it, but I think that people are making too big of a deal out of it,” junior Kerri Zumbrunn said.

Many people were very shocked by the video, and argue that the video was disrespectful to the people of Japan and victims of suicide.

“I think it was extremely disrespectful, and the whole vlog and series that he did while he was in Japan was disrespectful to the culture and others,” said junior Cheyenne Walker. “I think he completely deserved {the strong strong responses} it. When someone messes up, they should be criticized. He’s messed up so many times, but has never apologized about it. I think the backlash really made him realize that he can’t get away with anything, and he be not touched. I think his apology was extremely fake, and he was doing it just so he could keep subscribers.”

While others agree that Paul’s video was wrong, they are saying that the media is over publicizing his fall. Some are saying that his repercussions were too severe.

“I’m sick of seeing news about it. It happened, but people don’t need to keep talking about it,” junior Zosia France said. “It’s a big deal, but I think they’re making it too big of a deal out of it, because we get that we’re not supposed to disrespect people have committed suicide, that’s bad, but [the media] made their point.”

“It was stupid,” senior Justin Beller said. ” because he should have thought about it before he put it on there, because clearly he has influence over 12 or 13 million people, and he should have thought about doing it or turned it into something better, like a way to show that suicide is bad, but he was kind of like “I’m just going to make money off of this,” and he was joking in the video.”

Suicide, depression, and other mental health issues are very real and serious. If you or a friend are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, our local 24 hour Mental Health Crisis Hotline at 1-800-841-1255, or emergency number, 911.