Is it healthy for school kids to dwell on a death?

I have observed my 8th grade daughter’s msn logs and found that many kids at her school and the high school are excessively making comments about how they miss a girl who has passed away. She was a junior and many of these kids hardly knew the girl, yet they post messages, draw pictures in art class or doodles, wear t-shirts and display window stickers, etc. in memory of the deceased girl. It has become sort of a popularity thing that I don’t think is healthy. It’s been almost a year since she passed. Last night I overheard 2 high school girls talking and one of them stated that "tomorrow is" (the deceased girl’s) "birthday". She repeated herself to make sure that the other girl heard what she said even though there was no indication that she didn’t hear it the first time. It seems as though some kids are actually competing to be more grieving than others about the girl. Am I being insensitive or is this unhealthy?

not to be rude, but u are being insensitive, it is not unhealthy at all. i have lost friends of mine when i was in high school, it is a very hard thing for a teenager to deal with, their hormones are raging anyway, the death of one of their friends makes it even worse. i dont think they are competing to see who grieves more, the deceased girl, was well liked. a good friend of mine lost a good friend of hers in school, 10 years ago, and to this day, she still visits her grave every year, as well as alot of others we went to school with, so it is a perfectly normal thing. She is only in 8th grade, she is going thru alot of changes right now with her body, and emotions thru puberty, so she is going to take it harder than us adults would. i hope this helped u understand, just put yourself in her shoes. Good luck