Bullying is a term most Americans have heard if you paid attention to the news from about 2005 through 2015. Every time you turned the news on or went on the Internet there was always a story about children and young adults in middle and high school being bullied and even youths committing suicide because of the words that were said to them in school, on the Internet, and even with friends just hanging out. In case you were not paying attention during those years bullying comes in four different types. Dictionary.com defines cyber bullying as “the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages, usually anonymously.” Some websites that are popular with bullying are ask.fm, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Snapchat. This type of bullying is one of the hardest to avoid for teens with access to the Internet because for some teens they need to be constantly checking in. I am an example of one of those teens. I found it hard in high school to stay away from sites where I knew bullying was happening. Another type of bullying is physical bullying. Which is hitting, shoving, pushing, tripping, and other kinds of force used to harm the victim. Verbal bullying is using words and name-calling to hurt the person being bullied. Social bullying is the final type of bullying and this one is defined as a bully turning a whole group of fellow peers against the victim. Basically social bullying is bullies try to alienate victims so the bully is not the only one bullying. The victims of bullying are usually students who are labeled as “different” or “weird”. A study has shown that students who were bullied in middle and high school have a higher chance of depression and suicide according to a study conducted by Mitch van Geel, PhD1; Paul Vedder, PhD1, and Jenny Tanilon, PhD2. These studies have interested me in more ways than one. First of all, I was bullied in sixth grade through sophomore year. I’ll admit I was a bit weird when I was younger. I was teased for my haircut and what I wore. I had little to no friends and I was never included. Even some teachers made fun of my choice of jeans my first week of seventh grade. Most of the time I was just ignored or told to shut up. I always wanted to have a good friend in school so it was hard for me just to stay quiet. Finally though I got through it and by the time junior year came around I was excited to get back to school and see all my new friends I had made over summer. I guess my classmates started accepting me ever since I was on the soccer team. I didn’t complain I was just happy to have friends. Even though I was happy I had friends now I never could get the feeling that there was some sort of inside joke for a long time before I started trusting them. Going through bullying has made it hard for me to trust people and I have read forums where people say the same thing. I have also realized that my perception on people is different. I find that when I look at a person I automatically resort to judging them, in my head of course. This is uncharacteristic of me because I feel that I am a nice person and I try very hard to treat people equally and fairly. Sometimes though I just cannot help it. I believe this comes from seeing and dealing with bullying at a young age. In my head that was the way people treated people for a long time and my view on relationships with people was skewed for a long time. Once I was no longer bullied I still clung to that worldview which hurt me before I got help from therapists. They believed that since I was around people my age who for the most part were treating people poorly, that I had mistakenly learned that that’s how people treat other people. I have to work hard on not judging people and really try to not feel anxious or even depressed at some moments in my life. I have sought help for all of these from two different therapists and it helped me tremendously. I recommend therapists or counselors for students and teens to get real professional help to deal with their problems. This helped me and I know it can help other people.

I believe that children in bullied in middle and high school have a higher chance of committing suicide and psychological problems later in life. I very strongly agree with this statement because there is research backing this claim. Students and teachers in schools can rally together and prevent bullying in their schools and classes. Programs such as guidance counselors and mentorship programs in schools is a great way to prevent bullying. Counseling creates a safe place for students to talk and express their feelings to a trained professional. Parents should talk to their kids about bullying and ask them if they encounter it. I understand there may be some people who disagree with these statements. Some say that bullying happens to everyone and it’s just something everyone goes through. They say that getting bullied doesn’t affect the bullied teens later on in life. A valid counterargument for counselors is it could be a waste of money. Also people believe that there is no correlation to suicide rate and bullying at a young age. All of these arguments can be proved through research and experiments. Scientists and investigators have done these tests and conducted research to prove whether or not bullying is the cause of these suicides and psychological problems.

Psychologists such as Ann Steele have conducted research on the topic of bullying in schools. Ann Steele asks the question “What are the lasting psychological impacts of bullying?” Steele explains that bullying victims have a higher chance of having anxiety, depression, and/or self-loathing. Steele also notes that many victims find it hard to make and keep relationships with partners and even friends. Steele mentions the fact that bullies themselves have an increased chance in an unhappy life also. People who bullied in high school often grow into adulthood with unhappy lives. They are most likely shunned from society and bullies find it hard to keep a job and maintain relationships. Many people debate the correlation between suicide and bullying but Steele believes there are many factors dealing with teen suicide. She believes that bullying can be a cause but problems outside of school, problems at home, and depression. Steele understands that parents need to reach out to their children and ask them about bullying. Parents can help by informing their kids to stop bullying and telling them to report it if they see someone bullying. Now most bullies hide through computer and phone screens. Maria Konnikova of  “The New Yorker” has studied the type of bullying known as cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is considered the most difficult type of bullying to avoid. Anyone can make fake accounts and pose as someone they’re not just to bully. Some sites like ask.fm even let you ask questions anonymously with no way of knowing who said it. At my high school there was a sophomore girl named Audrey who was one of my best friends. She was one of the kindest and most selfless girls I knew. One-night anonymous posts bombarded her on her page for everyone to see. The posts ranged from calling her a slut to telling her she’s ugly to telling her she will never have friends. Audrey left the school 2 days later. I still haven’t talked to her since then, I think she just wants to forget about that school. The problem with cyber bullying is a lot of the time everyone can see what’s being said and it’s very hard to delete things completely from the Internet. In 2013, Rebecca Ann Sedwick a 12 year old girl from Florida committed suicide after two girls bullied her online. The two girls who were 12 and 14 were both charged with felony aggravated stalking. The two girls harassed Rebecca constantly on the Internet. Rebecca found it hard to make friends in real life so she kept in contact with friends online. This made her prone to receiving those messages from bullies. The girls told her “nobody cares about you.” and "You should die." The 14-year-old girl posted on Facebook just days after Rebecca Ann committed suicide "Yes [I know] I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but [I don't care]," The message ended with a little pink heart. Jordan Lewis a 15 year old from Illinois shot himself in the chest in 2013. He left a note blaming his actions of bullying. The football team picked on Jordan. They pushed him into lockers, made him quit football after the first day, and even struck him on the head. The day before Jordan Lewis’s death he watched an anti-bullying video at school. At the end of the video the victim kills himself. Jordan’s father believes this is what gave his son the idea. Jordan’s father turned to the school after what happened. He wanted them to make the students more aware of bullying and put an end to bullying in their school. These two stories are what prompted three scientists to conduct an experiment on the correlation between suicide and bullying. These numbers were found through searching through medical data records online through Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. The terms bully, victim, mobbing, ragging, and harassment were searched. They gathered their data from the search results to find the similarities between those terms and suicide. The scientists found a data pool of 284,375 people ages 9 to 21. The study showed that students who have been affected by bullying are 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide than those who do not experience bullying. These numbers support the claim that bullying increases the risk of suicide in teens. In the 2011 film “Cyberbully” directed by Charles Biname a young girl named Taylor receives a computer for her 17th birthday. After a short time she is on a website named “Cliquester” which is basically just Facebook. One day a classmate posted hateful comments on Taylors page. The next day the whole school has gotten in on it and Taylor loses all her friends. At the end of the movie she is attempting to commit suicide but her friend stops her. This movie works to inform and define bullying for parents and children. The overall message of the film is how terrible bullying is and how much words affect others. Allie Bidwell is a staff writer for U.S. News. Bidwell interviewed bullied students in high school to find out how they cope with bullying during school and how much it affects their daily life. 

The graphs show that more students are cyber bullied rather than traditional bullying. Cyber bullying causes the victim to feel alienated and distant from other which is why they tend to skip class or activities. Also a percentage of victims carried a weapon, this should alarm parents and teachers and fellow students. A weapon could place people in unnecessary harm especially in a school environment. These students should not have to be worrying about school and if they’re going to get teased or not. They should be focused on learning not hiding. A study in 2013 released by the Department of Education stated that 23.7 percent of females were bullied in 2013 while 19.5 percent of boys claimed to be bullied. At the time of this study bullying was on a decline even though a high percentage of students claimed to be bullied. Schools have tried to put an end to bullying in their schools but its not always easy. Many schools have massive amounts of students and the only way to help a bullied student is if they reach out to the school or an adult. Many students feel they cant express their feelings or tell a parent. Dr. Dieter Wolke researched the statistics on children who are bullied compared to children who are neglected by adults. He found that children who are bullied are worse for long-term mental health. This makes sense because of the amount of time students spend with each other in classrooms. This can be a problem from victims according to Dr. Wolke. "Bullying is comparable to a scenario for a caged animal," he said. "The classroom is a place where you're with people you didn't choose to be with, and you can't escape them if something negative happens." Students can feel trapped and unable to reach out. Internalizing these feelings can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. A way to combat bullying in schools is to hire a Guidance counselor. Guidance counselors serve to listen and give advice and help students in school with any problems they have. Guidance counselors can help students become stress-free and not have to be afraid of going to school. The stress that victims have can also cause mental health problems. Dr. Terry Ehiorobo conducted a study in 2011 to determine the percent of students grade seven through twelve. 1,965 students were asked if they were bullied, 48 percent reported being harassed in some way. Dr. Ehiorobo noted that the stress related to bullying that almost half the students were dealing with was not healthy for them. All of these studies point to the fact that bullying causes mental health problems and bullied teens have a higher risk of suicide relative to teens that don’t deal with bullying.

The evidence that has been gathered by doctors, psychologists, writers, directors, and researchers points to the fact that bullying at a young age increases your risk of suicide and mental health issues later in life. Even though bullying is still present in schools throughout the U.S. the numbers of reported cases of bullying are decreasing. Schools have implemented anti-bullying programs and most schools have guidance counselor offices. Most parents are well informed on bullying and should ask their children about their experiences with bullying. A great way for schools to help bullies and bullied students is to have mentorship programs. Where an upperclassman signs up to be a mentor then is assigned a student to talk to and give advice to and just to be a friend. I participated in a program like this in my high school. I mentored a student two grades below me, we met for coffee every week before school and we both learned a lot from getting to know each other. Including students and letting them know they are not alone is a good way to help students overcome bullying. Now it’s time for the reader to make their decision. After reading all of these facts and experiments related to bullying and the tragic stories of Jordan and Rebecca. Do you think that bullying at a young age affects mental health later in life?
