Take charge of those taking over: bullying

On Nov. 11, mother Stacy Conner walked into her 10-year-old daughter Ashlynn’s bedroom to find that she had committed suicide after suffering from bullying at her elementary school for years.

Ashlynn, a cheerleader and driven fifth-grade grade student at an Illinois elementary school, shocked her family with a desperate plea to be homeschooled to escape bullying the day before her death. Yet nobody could have predicted that this bullying would cost Ashlynn her life.

Ashlynn was just one of many young students who face daily torment from their peers. According to the American Psychological Association, students from fifth to 12th grade are more concerned about emotional maltreatment and social cruelty from peers than anything else, and 70 percent of middle and high school students have experienced bullying during their lives. Bullying has not only become a threat to school and social environments, but to precious human life.

Though it sometimes goes undetected, bullying is as present a threat now in schools as any time before. It takes multiple forms, from harassment and name-calling to physical abuse and cyber-bullying, which stems from the increased use of social networking sites.

Schools are increasingly becoming a place where countless students are subjected to torment by their peers. Bullying not only hurts a student mentally but can also affect his or her performance in school and everyday life.

Bullying, as in Ashlynn’s case, has increased the suicide rate in students, which has risen to the third leading cause of death among young people. Furthermore, behind every suicide, there are at least 100 failed or unreported attempts among young people, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stomp Out Bullying, a national anti-bullying program for kids and teens, found that as many as 160,000 students stay home on any given day because they’re afraid of being bullied.
Not only is bullying a severe concern, but the fact that a 10-year-old girl even knew how to commit suicide is unnerving.

An overabundance of graphic and violent material easily accessible on television, through the Internet or on radios, has exposed children to a variety of adult situations and realities that such young individuals should not be introduced to.

The solution to this problem lies not only in efforts by schools to implement and enforce anti-bullying programs, but also in the young people themselves. Any efforts made by schools are only effective if the bullies realize the magnitude of their actions. What may seem like a harmless insult on an anonymous site could potentially be the last thing that a young person sees. Bullying will never be completely wiped out unless the offenders change their ways.

Of course, this change won’t be easy— a complete stop to bullying is highly improbable. Yet simple steps can be taken to lessen bullying’s prominence, such as showing videos early on in a child’s life that demonstrate the negative effects of bullying or inflicting harsher consequences when this situation occurs.

Additionally, some responsibility lies those close to the victim to support and help the victim. When Ashlynn told her mother the day before about the bullying, her mother did not take her daughter seriously and will live with the results for the rest of her life.

It is every person’s responsibility to recognize bullying when it happens and take action to solve the problem. Every form of bullying, regardless of how trivial it may seem, should never be taken lightly.