When did growing up become so hard some kids would rather end their lives. I was informed today that Wilbur Wright Middle School, the middle school I went to, lost another student just the other day to suicide.
My senior year Munster rallied around the color pink because we had lost a sixth grader, who didn't see the point in living anymore. Chills were sent down everyone's back when we had learned that he hung himself at a park down the block from his house. Come to find out he had been being ritually bullied by some of his peers.
This really hit home because my sister had been a peer with each of these students at the middle school. I couldn't fathom the thought that someone as young as my sister would be going through such a rough time and see the only solution was to take their own life. Schools always advertise how they have strong anti-bullying policies but it stems deeper than that.
When a student who is being bullied can't talk to one of these counselors or people who is set aside to take care of bullying something else needs to be done. Suicide, no matter how old the person is, is absolutely awful. But, when a middle schooler fresh out of elementary school and not even a teen yet thinks the best solution is to end their own life, society or schools need to take a step back.
Violence and death have become so common in this day of age. Kids need to be able to feel safe in a school where they are spending most of their life. 180 days a year, about 9 hours a day. From personal experience, I was heavily bullied beginning in elementary school when I moved to a new school. It only got worse in middle school and began to take a toll on my life in other ways. I can confidently say that if I went back and told myself freshmen year or even in eighth grade that I made it to college, I wouldn't believe myself. There was a point that I thought ending it was the only solution too, but luckily I was able to pull myself from that dark ledge.
I reached out to friends for a strong backbone, family occasionally. Never did I want to go talk to a school counselor or even a regular counselor. There needs to be more for students who are being bullied or who are suffering from depression. I am deeply saddened to hear that my former middle school hasn't taken action to change anything and haven't learned from previous tragic events. There's one thing to say you're going to change the way you're doing or approaching something versus actually taking action.