Did you know that over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year? I have been bullied before, at school and in public. Bullying needs to stop because it can cause people to harm themselves, commit or attempt suicide, and may cause other people to become a bully.

First of all, bullying needs to stop because it causes teens to harm themselves. Self-harm can include a variety of behaviors, the most common in teens are cutting, scratching, burning, ripping out hair, over dosing, and hitting/punching themselves. Bullying can make teens feel that they need to feel pain because they deserve it or that is what they are used to so they harm themselves to feel that pain. Almost all teenagers (ages 14-18) will self-harm because of bullying. Self-harm can lead to death or put teens in the hospital because of blood loss or a concussion.

Secondly, bullying needs to stop because it can cause teens to commit or attempt suicide. Bullying can make teens think that they are useless to the earth, that they are a waste of space, or that they aren’t wanted so they feel the need to die because they think the world would be better without them. Bullying can also make teens feel so horrible inside that they think their life would be better if they are dead so they commit suicide to end it. Each year in the U.S. approximately 2 million teens attempt suicide and approximately 2000 teens actually complete it. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teen victims of bullying.

Lastly, bullying needs to stop because it may cause other teens to become a bully. If someone is bullied all the time then they might feel that it is there only way to take out their anger because that is what was done to them. Others might see others being bullied and they might think it is okay to do it because they see other people getting away with it. A lot of bullies don’t know how much their actions influence others; especially younger children and even teenagers. They tend to copy what is seen around them or what is done to them. If bullying is bad then why would we want to be the cause of more of it?

Some people may say that if the bullying victim doesn’t tell then it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but they are wrong! Most victims are scared to tell. They think the bullying will get worse if they tell but what they don’t know is that it will proceed to get worse anyways. Parents, teachers, and adults need to pay more attention to teens and catch the bully before thing actually do get worse.

Bullying needs to stop because it causes people to harm themselves, commit or attempt suicide, and may cause others to become a bully. We, as a world, can come up with ways to help stop bullying in the world. We could start a petition, put up signs, and get schools to keep a better eye on students, talk to the government about it, and just try our best to end bullying!