Bullied To Death: Learning From The Kids

Teen suicides are all over the news. Bullying at school has spiraled out of control, and young and impressionable minds are being pushed too far. Lately several teens have committed suicide. All of suicides in the past few months have been hangings. It is becoming a trend. After being called names, and harassed these teens ended the cry for help with the silence of death. Some were found by siblings, while others by their mothers. Still the greatest tragedy is the loss of these precious lives.

High school is by far, a hard place. Emotional hormone driven youths direct anger and pain in any direction, usually singling out the weakest and most vulnerable teens and bullying them. But look a little closer and see where they are getting it from. A society that feels it is fine to discriminate by differences in sexual orientation or behavior is almost calling for their kids to behave the same way. Bullying is a tactic used by the religious, racists, and many other adults in the form of discrimination. Children are not blind to the behavior of their parents, nor can we pretend they don't notice our actions.

We try and talk our kids our of behaving like, well bullies, while simultaneously denying homosexuals the right to equality, and calling them unnatural. Which leads to gay/lesbian children to be bullied. We are a culture which singles out obese people and mocks them for their lack of health and aesthetic appearances, which leads to obese kids being bullied. As well as ones with deformities or any abnormalities of any kind. In fact the majority of bullying in school is about the kids who seem unable to conform. Most of the children who hung themselves were loving, caring children. The ones that the world needs most. Their frail egos could not tolerate the blows, and barbs they took. It only led them to a path of self destruction.

One child died in the arms of her own mother, after hanging her self. She took her last breaths as her mother "lost it." As we look at the list of precious children which have been lost to the tragedy of bullying it is a tear jerking gallery. What is lacking in these pictures is the humanity and empathy of the bullies who caused the tragic events to occur, or the intervention of school officials and police enforcement.

Our society demonstrates the tragic effects that narrow minded thinking bring, and relation between bullying of any kind and suicides. While the religious in our societies claim morality their systematic and ritual defamation of others creates an arena of abuse by their children. Exposure to their parents ridicule of outsiders and nonconformists lead to the children mocking adult behavior. As television and ads proclaim the immorality of those who don't conform to religious standards, our children carry the message forward in their actions and behaviors towards others. We send them to school where the hatred they were taught at home is used to brutalize other children.

Perhaps it is time for adults to learn from their kids, and stop bullying. Tragic deaths occur when we as a society take for granted all of the members of it, weather they be homosexual or heterosexual. No matter their size, looks, or gender. If adults can not demonstrate tolerance, how can we expect it of our kids. After all we are raising them to be just like us, and their actions reflect our inaction, or poor actions. And it is killing people, so be responsible for the hate and stop bullying.

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