Suicide of transgender teen shakes Kent boarding school

KENT — After climbing to the pulpit in St. Joseph’s Chapel at the private Kent School two months ago, Emelia Worth said she had to speak frankly to faculty members and her fellow students.

“For once, I’ve actually chosen my words very carefully. ... Let me explain myself to you, not as Carl, the experienced senior giving a chapel talk. But as Carl, the really scared child who is worried that they may have waited too long to get real.”

She was battling depression, she said, and then announced: “I am transgender. I puzzle every day why I came out a boy.”

Worth took her life last Saturday. She was 18.

She had told close friends about her gender identity in the fall, and school officials and students who knew had embraced her, friends said. It was her peer and school support that gave her the courage to tell a crowd, said Elsa Worth, her mother.

She wanted to speak because she was sure others were hurting, too.

“I don’t think I’m unique in being transgender, being depressed, or being at a loss for the meaning of my own life. Maybe hearing about my still-ongoing exploration may help somebody in here,” Emelia said.

After her 11-minute Dec. 8 speech, Emelia went to a special place on campus that was a source of calm for her.

Emelia Worth, 18, took her life Saturday Jan. 28. Two months earlier, she told faculty and her peers at the Kent School that she was transgender. Emelia Worth, 18, took her life Saturday Jan. 28. Two months earlier, she told faculty and her peers at the Kent School that she was transgender. Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Suicide of transgender teen shakes Kent boarding school 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

That’s where she was found on Saturday. On Sunday, the bell at St. Joseph’s rang 18 times for her.

Forty percent of transgender people report they have attempted suicide in their lifetime, according to a recent survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

But Emelia wasn’t just a number, said a friend and fellow senior at the 570-student boarding school.

“She was just a role model for everybody. She was everybody’s friend,” she said. “I’ve never met someone like that in my life, and I don’t think I will. Someone that could talk to so many people. She was the most amazing, genuine person. She stood up for everybody.”

It wasn’t a lack of support from family, friends or school officials that led to Emelia’s death, her mother said. “It was suicidal depression,” she said.

“She was the sunshine of our home,” Elsa Worth said. “There are some things that we’ll never understand about depression — at least I won’t.”

Emelia Worth was a kind, remarkably bright, family-oriented person, Elsa Worth said. She picked Emelia for a name because Elsa told her it would have been her name had she been born a girl.

She was born Dec. 27, 1998, and lived in several Connecticut towns before her family moved to Keene, N.H., in August. Before she began her time at the Kent School — on a near-full scholarship — she had been a lifetime camper at Camp Washington in Lakeside. She was proud member of St. Paul’s Church in Norwalk and was on the church’s choir and a member of its music ministry for eight years.

At the school, she was a class representitive each of her four years and served as a senior prefect this year after being voted in as a student leader by faculty and students. She played bass in the orchestra — a Kent School first — and the jazz band. She was also a percussionist in the concert band.

Before her death, she was applying to colleges. She had been accepted to the University of New Hampshire and University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She planned to study linguistics and become a professor, her mother said.

Emelia planned to start correcting what she described as an “astrological coin flip” come March with hormone treatments, her classmate said.

Hormone treatment or not, her school and friends had tried to make her more comfortable. The school was planning to allow her to live in the girls’ dormitory rooms, her classmate said. And no one knew of bullying or harsh words for Emelia.

“If anyone was to say anything to her, they knew everyone would have risen up and protected her,” she said.

Emelia Worth is survived by her mother, Elsa, her father, Steven Worth, and two brothers, Bo and Orion. A memorial service will take place at St. James Church in Keene, N.H., on Feb. 10. Another will take place at Kent School on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, her family asks donations be made to The Emelia Carl ’17 Scholarship at the school.