Warning: This article discusses suicide and self-harm.

The hot topic of bullying has been picking up steam as it rampages across our schools at an increasing rate, and it is about time we make a big change. Bullying mostly affects the victim, but also the bully itself. The bully starts to gain more “confidence”  while they pick on more kids. Many schools have protocols to “block” bullying, only when the victim speaks up. In most cases, victims keep quiet, I believe there are two ways to drastically decrease the rate.

We must teach students to cherish diversity. With all the current movements taking place it is important that we respect one another and ourselves. If we have confidence in ourselves, we tend to be protective of it and stand up to bullies. People have been bullying teens on their insecurities on social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok. Insecurities already cause people to shy away or quiet the topic. The hate comments causes teens to “improve” themselves to please the commenter which can lead to eating disorders or depression.  Bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to commit bullycide (suicide caused by bullying) than non-victims. Bringing awareness to diversity may stop bullies from commenting but it also boosts the moral of the victim to stand up or to be unaffected by the comment. 

Schools should have anti-bullying electives instead of school issued seminars. Bullying in school is still happening frequently, it may be “old fashioned” but it is still just as effective as cyberbullying! Many schools host anti-bullying seminars, however these tend to go ignored and bullying still continues within the school. Having classes where advocates get together to find ways to solve or address bullying comes in handy, we can stop bullying without aggravating the situation. The Covid pandemic made us feel a sense of separation and many bullies are using that feeling to target the victims. Clifton Middle School in Monrovia, California tried this method and noticed a difference. They started to offer more classes around other sensitive topics, increasing the school unity and having students sticking up for each other more often than before. 

Bullying, active or passive; physical or emotional; cyber or in-person is a mortal sin and it can drive students to hurt themselves in a myriad of ways. We as a school should promote more diversity and introduce anti-bullying classes to stop bullying early. Are we going to wait to see the day it happens again? Are we going to let the depression rates go up because of this? Is bullying going to be another stereotype in 2022? I hope not, so let's get better.