Many people think that bullying is just an inevitable part of society today that will happen no matter what and that we should just accept it. However, when you look at the staggering statistics, such as that 34% of children are directly involved as a bully or a victim of bullying at some point. That is a huge percentage on our population that will live their whole lives with the traumatic consequences of bullying. However, some of them don’t live very long lives...
Sometimes victims of bullying see suicide as the only escape from the torment and harassment. Many victims of bullying feel trapped and helpless in their situation and don’t have the knowledge or courage to find a solution to the problem. A heart-wrenching story that was recently in the news and featured on Oprah comes to mind. Two eleven year olds, Carl Walker-Hoover and Jaheem Herrera, committed suicide within eleven days in April this year. Both boys hung themselves because they were overwhelmed with bullying. These two cases were unrelated and the boys didn’t know each other. There are hundreds, even thousands, of other stories just like these boys’.
Suicide is a very extreme reaction to bullying, but if some people are willing to go that far to relieve themselves from the anguish caused by bullying, then bullying obviously impacts people’s lives in a monumental way. We need to do our job to help before anyone goes so far as committing suicide to get away from bullying. If you see someone getting bullied, stand up for them, tell a trusted adult, do something to break the chain of bullying. It only takes the courage of one.
For StopBully.com Blog - JR
