Bullying: America’s Greatest Problem

Bullying is no longer an issue of a big kid shoving a little boy into a locker. Bullying in America has transformed to be an issue bigger than we could have ever imagined. The teenage suicide rate has raised more than 8% in the last few years and many kids have dropped out of school because they couldn’t take the abuse anymore. Bullying has become one of the biggest issues that America has ever had to face, but we still don’t know how to do one thing. Stop it.

Being a teenage girl, I have witnessed several victims being tantalized by their peers. The sad thing is it’s always the same people, at least at my school. Many people have teased and abused these victims so badly that they find school unsafe. Take Katy for example. Katy is my age and she has been bullied since the first grade. It ended up getting so out of control that she went to being home schooled because she just couldn’t take it anymore.

Katy was lucky, however. She found a way to escape the torture in a healthy way. Others, who have been bullied, like KJ, who lives in Iowa, escaped the tormenting by committing suicide. He was bullied just because he was gay. I only mention KJ’s death because it was recent, but throughout the past few years, there have been several suicide cases from victims of bullying.

The devastating thing about most of these cases is that adults turned a blind eye to the bullying. When Katy was still at my school, people would torment her in front of teachers. Most teachers wouldn’t say anything, as if they hadn’t heard it, but others would say “That’s so mean!” to the person who was doing the teasing, but laugh after they said it. Katy suffered, but it wasn’t only from the kids, it was also because no adults stood up for her.

Although I do find Katy’s story upsetting, what makes me furious is when adults are blatant that they don’t like a certain kid. For instance, when I was on a school trip, a parent who was in charge of four kids kicked a girl out of their group, simply because she didn’t like her. Luckily for that girl, I let her come into my group for the rest of the day. This is one of the reasons why I am so aggressive on the issue of bullying. Adults should be there to help a problem, not make it worse.

Bullying is more than a small issue these days. We need to stop it! Stopping it, however, won’t be easy. It could be one of the biggest fights we, America, have ever had to deal with. In turn, bullying probably won’t ever be able to be stopped completely, but we can all make a difference by stopping it, one victim at a time.