Doc Z
SLCC
18 November 2010
Suicide because of bullying in the US
Every one's view of bullying is different. Dan Hughes from ABC News says, “What it boils down to is the football players, cheerleaders, and kids with money have a different set of rules then everybody else.” Bullying can be hard to deal with, and kids need to understand that everyone around them is going through something that's hard to handle. More and more children going to school are getting bullied and cannot cope with the harassment caused by their classmates. Suicide has been a common way for these kids to escape fear of verbal and physical abuse. Suicide is not an appropriate way for teens to escape bullies in school.
Teenagers being verbally abused with racial and gay slurs should understand that words are only as powerful as you make them. If these teens are not able to deal with this type of teasing in school they will not survive in a professional job setting.“ Eric Mohat, 17, was harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully publicly said in class, “Why don’t you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you,” he did. Now his parents, William and Janis Mohat of Mentor, Ohio, have filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying that their son endured name-calling and teasing in front of school officials who should have protected him” (James). Eric was not able to handle the bad things that people had to say about him and preformed one of the most selfish acts possible. James states that “160,000 kids nationwide stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied”. Verbal abuse is not only a problem in schools but also happens in a professional work place. If teens find a way to cope with the name calling in high school then they will be better prepared for the real world. The ineffectiveness of the government’s attempts to completely stop bullying have proven unsuccessful and should be discontinued. There are many things our government needs to work on and other places where we should be spending money other than preventing bullying.“The Education Department plans to hold technical assistance workshops around the country in early 2011 to help educators better understand their obligations and the resources available to take prompt and effective steps that will end harassment and bullying in schools” (Bouchard). Bouchard also explains that a Dear Colleagues letter was sent from the Department of Education telling schools and colleges that it is their “legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment”.Bullying will never stop, no matter how many classes the government puts in school. For many years our government has wasted money trying to minimize bullying and personally, I haven’t seen anything change. Unfortunately bullying is human nature and teens need to find a way to understand that without committing suicide.
Many people believe that putting bully prevention classes in school will help decrease the amount of bulling although the classes only inform students about not teasing instead of help prevent it from happening. “Five speakers were featured Wednesday during a seminar on bullying and cyberbullying, presented by GoodGuides, a program of Goodwill Industries of Monocacy Vally, at West Frederick Middle School. The panel discussion provided information about bullying, its many methods of delivery, and the consequences and long-lasting effects on many of its victims” (Neal). Deborah Lee, author of School Administrators Oppose Bullying Rather then Focusing on Behavior of the Victim, believes the bully is more effected by whats happening then the victim. More importantly when the question was asked, “How to prevent bullying?”. Her only response was stating facts and statistics about how many teens get bullied and how often cyberbullying happens (Lee). Although classes might educate the public about how big of a problem bullying is, it still wont decrease the amount of verbal abuse that goes on in schools. These classes aren’t preventing harassment, therefore teens are still dealing with bully's and committing suicide.
The public needs to be informed of what is happening due to bullying in school so that teachers and staff can recognize and stop bullies before it gets to the point of suicide.“Schools, colleges, and universities that fail to address ethnic, sexual, or gender-based harassment could be violating student civil rights protected under federal anti-discrimination laws” (Tyrrell). The Department of Education has strict laws about teachers not stopping bullying in the classroom. “In many past instances, schools’ reaction to bullying has been to ignore the bully but educate the victim, promoting assertiveness or counterattack or the adoption of a meek, non-threatening attitude designed to deflect the bully’s intention” (Lee). In one instance, “...most of the harassment took place in math class and the teacher--an athletic coach-- was accused of failing to protect the boy” (James). Unfortunately this young boy committed suicide and the teacher was not able to recognize that this boy was getting bullied in time to save his life. If the teacher was able to stop the name calling sooner then maybe he would still be alive.
Bulling in school does not always result in the victim committing suicide. In some cases the bullies will kill themselves, which is what happened in a shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 (Columbine). Columbine was named one of the worst school shootings in US history (Bowling). Two boys named Eric and Dylan were known by their classmates as being “cool” and would occasionally bully kids around and laugh about it. Although they had friends and seemed to be popular, nobody knew that in their senior year these two boys would make a long lasting mark at Columbine. They planned for over a year to create the biggest most effective bombing in a school ever recoded in history. Propane tank bombs, hand grenades, and guns were used to kill and destroy the structure they used to called their high school. After the massacre happened it took many years to find a motive behind the shooting and we still don’t know answers to many questions (Columbine). Columbine is a good example that proves victims are not the only ones committing suicide and how common suicide is amongst teens.
Sadly both bullies and their victims have one thing in common, they both have qualities of being suicidal. The fact is that bullying is apart of every school and has constantly been a problem around the country. No matter how many classes people take or stories they hear, bullying will always be a problem in schools. Instead of trying to change bullies, the victims should change the way they deal with harassment.
Works Cited
Bouchard, Kelly. “Feds offer anti-bullying guidance to educators.” Portland Press Herald, (ME) 26 Oct 2010: Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 4 Nov 2010.
Bowling for Columbine. By Michael Moore. Dir. Michael Moore. Boulder Public Library, 2002. DVD.
Cullen, Dave. Columbine. New York: Twelve, 2009. Print.
James, Susan. “Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son’s Death.” ABC News, 2 Apr. 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.
Lee, Deborah. “School Administrators Should Oppose Bullying Rather then Focusing on the Behavior of the Victim.” 2009: Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.
Neal, Marge. “Seminar continues discussion of bullying.” Frederick News-Post, The (MD) 27 Oct. 2010: Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
Tyrrel, Joie. “Feds issue advisory to schools, colleges on bullying.” Newsday, (Melville, NY) 27 Oct. 2010: Points of View Reference Center, EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
