There are 6,852,472,823 people in the world. Why are you letting ONE of them bring you down? Have you ever been bullied or seen someone once being bullied? Have you ever done something to stop that bully? If not, then why would you just stand there? Why become another one of those statistics that prove that bystanders will never speak up for others? Just recently I found an article on teens who have committed suicide due to bullying. I thought about sharing this with others through my blog. 
Oct. 7, 2003
Ryan Halligan of Essex Junction, Vt., commits suicide at age 13 after middle school classmates threaten, taunt and insult him incessantly in person and online. His father, John Halligan, a former IBM engineer, lobbies for laws in Vermont to improve how schools address bullying and suicide prevention. He also gives speeches at schools in other states about the story of his son. Below is a list of teens who have committed suicide due to being bullied.
June 29, 2005
Jeffrey Johnston, a Cape Coral, Fla., straight-A student, commits suicide after being bullied in person and online.
Oct. 9, 2006
Rachael Neblett, 17, of Mount Washington, Ky., kills herself in her parent's bedroom after being threatened with violence on the Internet.
Megan Meier, 13, of St. Charles, Mo., hangs herself after receiving a flurry of cruel messages on MySpace. On May 15, 2008, a federal grand jury indicts adult neighbor Lori Drew for her alleged role in bullying Meier online.
Aug. 23, 2008
Alexa Berman, 14, of Brookfield, Conn., hangs herself in her bedroom three days before starting high school. Adopted from Russia as a 3-year-old, she had made a smooth transition until adolescence, when former friends tormented her in school.
July 3, 2008
Jesse Logan, 18, of Cincinnati, hangs herself in her bedroom after an ex-boyfriend sends nude pictures of her, to other female students at Sycamore High School. She had gone on a Cincinnati television station to tell her story, as a measure to prevent people from going through what she had, but the attacks continued.
Jan. 14, 2010
Phoebe Prince, 15, hangs herself after being harassed mostly in school, but also on Facebook and through other electronic forms. The teen had just arrived in South Hadley, Mass. from Ireland months earlier to begin ninth grade. On March 29, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel indicted six students on charges that included statutory rape. The town's school committee approved a 62-page anti-bullying policy June 30.
March 22, 2010
Alexis Skye Pilkington, 17, of West Islip, N.Y., is the target of insulting online messages before and after her suicide. Though her family did not believe the messages were a major factor in her death, classmates, relatives and friends were incensed over what they called creepy, insensitive messages about Pilkington, many posted anonymously and also appearing on other Web sites since her death.
April 14, 2010
Ashley Rogers, 15, of Kernersville, N.C., hangs herself in her bedroom. Though she was clinically depressed, her parents believed harassment by fellow students via text messages and taunts at school fueled her depression.
Sept. 22, 2010
Tyler Clementi, 18, jumps to his death from New York's George Washington Bridge, prosecutors say, after his roommate Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei transmit a live image of Clementi having sex. Ravi and Wei are charged with invading Clementi's privacy.
Nov. 10, 2010
Authorities in Michigan dismiss a rape charge against Joseph Tarnopolski, 18, after his 14-year-old accuser, Samantha Kelly, committed suicide in her mobile home following harassment by classmates.
These are just some of the many teens who have committed suicide over the years due to bullies. These teens had done nothing to be treated this way. They were brought down by their own peers and the ones who stood by and watched did nothing to stop them.
If you are being bullied the first thing you should do is talk to someone. Weather it's a parent, friend, or teacher. It's nice to have someone know what's going on. And if you have friends who are bullies and have seen them putting someone down, then you are no better then that bully. This year about 1 in every 3 teens have been bullied. The only way I can think of preventing bullying is by standing up to the bully face to face. Yeah, I get it sometimes it's hard and you just can't do it, but in the end it feels good to have stood up for someone.
Here are some links to some sites that help prevent bullying.
https://meanstinks.com/
http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/#/home
http://www.makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org/facts_new.html
Below is a list of the different forms of bullying:
• Physical – hitting, kicking, pinching, punching, scratching, spitting or any other form of physical attack. Damage to or taking someone else's belongings may also constitute as physical bullying.
• Verbal – name calling, insulting, making racist, sexist or homophobic jokes, remarks or teasing, using sexually suggestive or abusive language, offensive remarks
• Indirect – spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumors, sending abusive mail, and email and text messages (cyber bullying).
• Cyber Bullying - Hurting someone in anyway through technology. It can be a text message, phone call, e-mail, e.t.c.
You don't realize you're hurting someone until reality hits your face and you've finally realized what you've done. It's better to learn about these things now and take action then later when it's too late.
The thing I don't understand is that even though anti-bullying has been brought up by many people in many places, teens still don't understand. I remember in 4th grade I had a classmate who would constantly be bullied each day. I was a new student at the school at this time so, I didn't really know her or anyone else. Soon I saw that everyone in my class played a game called "it." Each time someone touched that girl they had to pass on her "germs." At first I didn't play this game called "it" because I actually really liked that girl and she helped me fit in. I remember the entire school year what big jerks all my friends were to her. I couldn't even just once tell them to stop. I told some teachers, but they never believed me so, I eventually let it pass. Today, after so many years I feel bad that I couldn't do anything to stop them. I getting in touch with my former friend, but feel ashamed of what I would say and do. But, that doesn't mean I'm up for bullying today, I regret my choices of my past and say to myself, "what if I had stood up for her?"
I hope this plants a seed somehow in your brains and maybe in the future you can be brave enough to stick up for someone.
You don't realize you're hurting someone until reality hits your face and you've finally realized what you've done. It's better to learn about these things now and take action then later when it's too late.
The thing I don't understand is that even though anti-bullying has been brought up by many people in many places, teens still don't understand. I remember in 4th grade I had a classmate who would constantly be bullied each day. I was a new student at the school at this time so, I didn't really know her or anyone else. Soon I saw that everyone in my class played a game called "it." Each time someone touched that girl they had to pass on her "germs." At first I didn't play this game called "it" because I actually really liked that girl and she helped me fit in. I remember the entire school year what big jerks all my friends were to her. I couldn't even just once tell them to stop. I told some teachers, but they never believed me so, I eventually let it pass. Today, after so many years I feel bad that I couldn't do anything to stop them. I getting in touch with my former friend, but feel ashamed of what I would say and do. But, that doesn't mean I'm up for bullying today, I regret my choices of my past and say to myself, "what if I had stood up for her?"
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