Bullying is a Crime

At a very young age, most kids are exposed to the cruel reality of taunts and jeers from fellow peers. Bullying has been a major problem for years, especially in America. Most teens who commit suicide or cut themselves are almost always victims of constant teasing and bullying. When bullying goes far enough to cause someone to take their own life, it should be considered an illegal crime. If bullying is not made illegal soon, more teens will lose their lives to this heinous act, and more teens will by mentally scarred.

Bullying should be made illegal for many reasons, the most obvious one being that it takes thousands of young lives each year. Teens lead very stressful lives, and when someone is constantly making fun of you in class or online, life can be made a living hell. Sadly enough, sometimes it is felt that the only escape is death. Google 'suicides due to bullying' and hundreds of heart wrenching stories will come up; each with a victim having suffered at the hands of his/her own classmates due to their sexual orientation, friend choice, or even music style. According to a behavioral management site, 60% of high school students admit to have being bullied in the past year. 10% of all teens admit to have bullied in the past year. While we may not realize it, even innocent jokes may offend someone. The popular saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," does not always apply. Words have a bigger impact than one would imagine. Bullying is like an indirect homicide. Technically, it is a suicide. But if the suicide was caused by constant hurtful and treacherous remarks, the person behind it all would be the reason for his/her death. Morally, in my opinion this is not taken seriously enough, which leads to many more heartbroken families grieving the loss of their troubled teens. It is absolutely necessary for bullying to become an official national crime.

Bullying not only takes the lives of teens all over America, but it also damages them emotionally. In a Teen's Health article, it is stated that 2/3 of all bullied teens end up doing the bullying. In many popular TV Shows, such as Degrassi from TeenNick, the victims of bullying end up being mentally wounded for months. All the hatred directed towards them gets bottled up, and will eventually blow over by some vicious plot to get back at his/her tormenters. This is actually a very common thing. The Virginia Tech shooter was known to be a common target for bullies all throughout high school. In the long run, victims of bullying who don't commit suicide end up doing more harm than good. In Burbank, California, a teen was constantly bullied during the school day. He decided that he wanted to die, and take his tormentors down with him. My cousin and uncle happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. My uncle is no longer with us, and my cousin no longer has control over his right arm. Making bullying illegal will scare off teens looking to pick on others, which ultimately leads to less mentally disturbed people in the world.

People might argue that bullying is just a part of growing up. There is much debate on this controversial issue, mostly surrounding whether or not teens should be tried for jail simply for making fun of others. It is all just for a good laugh, right? It is not as if they knew Phoebe Price would kill herself after being called things such as slut, whore, skank and many other vulgar names. After Phoebe was found dead, all her tormenters must have wished they had not said those things to her; regret plagued them. Bottom line, they still did it. No matter what the excuse is, the fact that their taunts caused an innocent 16 year old girl want to end her own life still lingers thick in the air. Yes, bullies tend to be minors, thus they have yet to fully mature. They should not be held accountable for their immature actions. But their actions caused innocent people's deaths. This is unacceptable. A law must be made declaring all forms of bullying illegal.

In a perfect world, everyone would get along and teenagers would not be considering suicide daily. Because we do not live in a perfect world, it is up to us, the youth of our nation, to get bullying to be less of a problem. Bullies cause teens to hate everything about themselves. Bullies cause families to forever mourn their loved children. Bullies cause suicidal teens. Help stop all of this by passing a law that makes bullying an illegal crime, recognized nationally.