Even though
there are many groups of people and organizations that have created different
projects to prevent bullying around the world, it seems to keep going. Many
sources say that it the reduction progresses each year, but thousands of
teenagers keep taking their lives because of this reason.
A few weeks ago,
a teenager called Amanda Todd took her life because of the constant threats she
had to go through in school, and because of the bullying she had to deal with
every day. The girl was only fifteen years old and lived in Canada.
What do you
think about Amanda´s case of suicide because of bullying? Is the only way to
stop being bullied is to commit suicide?
What can we do,
as teenagers, to prevent these harassments?
Do you think
organizations are actually making powerful changes with the prevention of
bullying?
In my opinion Amanda’s case is, just as any other case which involves bullying and/or suicide, very sad. I feel that bullying is an issue that has to be stopped as soon as possible and that isn’t taken seriously enough. It upsets me how people are able to harass someone until the point that the person feels like they have to kill themselves in order to stop their pain. But what bothers me the most is that nobody had the nerve to try to help her or even just be her friend because of what she did, despite knowing how much hate she was receiving.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that suicide is the correct option to escape bullying and I feel that it is partly society’s fault that she ended her life. I have the feeling that nobody tried to help her because they didn’t know what she was going through. If people had been more empathic and tried to help her instead of making fun of her she would probably still be alive. In my opinion, this is one of the main issues because, the fact that nobody had enough courage to try to help her was probably because they were afraid of being rejected by their classmates, and this is what has to be changed.
I think that organizations are making changes but, unfortunately, they aren’t strong enough to raise people’s awareness. This is because cases like Amanda’s are forgotten, people relate to it for a couple months and then stop thinking about it. I feel that what has to be done is change society’s way of thinking, people have to understand what it is like to be involved in a case like hers and not only see it from the outside.
Another big problem is that people know that it is wrong to bully someone but they don’t actually know how it feels to be harassed. It might seem that, for example, calling someone a name isn’t too serious, but the person could be very affected because of different reasons (insecurities, for example) and most people are not aware of this. Thinking that “it’s no big deal” or that “she’ll be fine” is what’s wrong, because you never know what effect your actions will have on the other person.
Therefore I think that it is important to make people see the importance of empathy, as well as showing them how helping someone does make a change. I feel that this is what organizations and schools should focus on through talks, workshops… in order to make a change and to reduce bullying.
First of all I would like to point out the amazing statistic (56%). It’s shocking to hear about so many cases of bullying at school when it should be the school’s responsibility to prevent such harassments.
ReplyDeleteAlthough some cases are very critical and the bullies tell their victims not to report the situations, threatening them with serious consequences, I think committing suicide is the last of all options. It’s the extreme that nobody should reach, in fact nobody should even think about it. In a case like this, Amanda should have informed her teacher or even her parents and they could have found a much coherent solution.
Nowadays, there are every time more organizations or companies that go to schools and inform the students about these cases showing them what they should do, how to face bullying to prevent it from happening. The question is: is this helping? Do kids in Amanda’s situation really listen to what they are told? If they did, bullying would be over. The main problem those who suffer from bullying is that they are week, not strong enough to face the situation and take action.