Take a Stand.

[Chorale__ 2147]

Hey, so I'm making this post for one reason. To help end cyber-bullying or at least make an impact on how it's enforced.

If you're sensitive to suicide/bullying then please click off.

 

 

A very close friend of mine that's going to hopefully be walking across the stage with me as a Class of 2021 graduate tried to take her life Thursday night by overdosing on her bipolar medication. She was immediately rushed to the hospital and was placed in the ICU (intensive care unit) as-well-as placed on a ventilator and life support to try and keep her alive as her body couldn't handle the stress and was starting to shut down, as per what happens usually when you overdose. She'd just turned 15, and we were planning a birthday party for her. The next day at school was horrible, there was practically not a peep out of the freshman wing at our school. Around lunchtime, I hosted a prayer circle and around what is estimated to about 100 people attended out of our class. We were waiting all day for updates and hoping that she was okay. Right before the school day ended, we heard that she was breathing without a ventilator though couldn't speak and could just write things down as a way to communicate with others. I went and visited her today. She's doing so well and they took her off of life support of course. They're keeping her for a few more days to make sure she's in the best condition when they release her to a mental rehabilitation center. What encouraged her to try and take her own life, you might ask? Bullying. In the story below, we'll call my friend Abby and the bully Cindy.

 

Cindy and Abby used to be best friends. I can look back in our earlier years and remember them always sticking by each other's sides. When we got to middle school they began to despise each other and Cindy started bullying Abby last year, when we were in the 8th grade. Abby and Cindy have even gone as far as to physically fight each other over this past year. Fast forward until a few weeks ago, Cindy began posting things online about Abby and she began to get really frustrated with Cindy. She didn't want to fight her anymore, she didn't want to argue anymore. Therefore, she went to the school board. They didn't do anything about it aside from suspending Cindy for a week. Mind you, Cindy has brought drugs and deadly weapons to school in the earlier years and been suspended for such. She's a very naughty girl. After Abby's attempt, they told Cindy not to come to school because people were threatening to kill her due to a post she made about Abby following her attempt on her life. She said that she hopes Abby burns in hell and many other rude things. I was very angry at the school system for not doing anything about this and even went to the office and fussed at my assistant principal out of this anger. I spoke the truth, and it didn't go unpunished. I was kicked off the student council and leadership team, but hey - that's another story. There are petitions everywhere against my school board with over 150 shares... but the real problem comes from the root of the story. Bullying. If you help to take a stand against this, it could very well make a very big impact. You can't change the world but you can surely help. Please, make sure that nothing ever happens like this again. I almost lost my best friend to bullying and it pains me to not be able to do anything about it, so I'm sharing this link here - on this platform to hopefully spread the word. This is a very serious post and memes and other nonsense will not be tolerated and removed immediately.

 

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/bullying-and-cyberbullying

At the time of this post, there are 166 signatures. If 34 could find it in your heart to sign this petition, it will be sent to President Trump. Even if you don't live in the States, which I know a lot of you don't, your signature could still be very impactful. Where you'd find a  U.S. address is out of my reach though. :))

 

Thank you for your time.

 

[CHARLES THE BALD 2615]

We see bullying as intimation or threat towards another person, however bullying in itself is a behavior pattern that can be seen in all kinds of species. Animals use the same process to defend themselves and their territories, and humans use it in a similar way.

We bully those who are seen as a threat, seen as weaker, or as something that we do not understand.
While it is mean for the weaker party, humanity has evolved to do it.

That said, are we doing society a favor by going after "bullies" with pitchfork in hand, or are we actually weakening ourselves by letting a natural behavior become unnatural ?

[GgDionne 43]

The need to feel power over someone else will always be present. The best thing you can do is to be aware, and learn how to avoid it. Prayers go out to her complete recovery

[Chorale__ 2147]

19 minutes ago, Charles The Bald said:

are we doing society a favor by going after "bullies" with pitchfork in hand, or are we actually weakening ourselves by letting a natural behavior become unnatural ?

You have a point, I'll give you that. Though it needs to be controlled to an extent. When it's so bad that it makes someone want to not live anymore, I'm sure that the behavior isn't so natural anymore and it's just out of pure hatefulness - harassment, one could even go as far to say. 

 

If this were taken in as a bill I'm sure all the congressmen could argue for hours. There's no good argument for it when it boils down though. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers, resulting in around 4,000 deaths per year. For every one of those, there are at least 100 attempts. If I calculated correctly, that's roughly 400,000 attempts per year. Most of those suicides (and attempts) are caused by bullying. I couldn't find a statistic for that, but I did read several articles. Eventually, the congressmen wouldn't be able to find any more arguments (or any congressmen in the right mindset) and it'd go to the President. Considering that he's a big bully himself, he probably wouldn't approve but I'm sure that a 2/3 vote from Congress to override his veto would occur. This is purely if we lived in a perfect world, however. Just like there are with LGBT rights, there would be protests and eventually, they'd give in and it'd be considered against the law. 

[Guest]

The truth is bullying as far as terms go is far too vague. Take a stand against the failure on part of schools to act on harassment and assault charges. My prayers go out to your friend and I hope they can find rehabilitation and endurance in the face of such a horrible circumstance and triumph over it. 

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

Fairly sure bullies can get charged with manslaughter for causing suicides iirc.

 

Doesn't need to be a bill, it needs to simply be enforced in the educational system with large scrutiny to ensure things like this don't happen. It's a tragedy what happened and the 'bully' and the school-board both need to answer for what they've done.

[GgDionne 43]

It's easy to cyber-bully anonymously.You don't even need a vpn, facebook would hide your persona. "In order that every man may present his views without penalty, there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population"

[Abeam 511]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, I'll be sure to mention this story on Wednesday when I go to church with my prayer group.  The petition, on the other hand; is a different matter, bullying that causes a person to commit suicide is already a crime, I don't want further governmental interference in my online experience, just because some self conscious kids trying to make up for their lack of social lives decide to write mean words on the internet; doesn't mean that the government should start prosecuting willy nilly. 

[zaezae 1098]

There's no justification for going after someone who can't defend themselves just to **** with them. Anyone who does it is a sociopathic dipshit. That said, I can't sign something as vague as that petition. Suicide is a terrible problem but I can't just write the government a blank check to try an solve it. I need a clearly defined policy with a narrow scope. 

 

Also, no. Aggressiveness and bullying are two completely different concepts and shouldn't be conflated. Who defends this stuff?

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

Some people act out, behave like dicks, lose their temper, that's human and forgivable

 

Some people specifically go out of their way to make people uncomfortable or miserable. In a planned, specific, targeted way. That should not be tolerated under any circumstances.

[Sky 0]

I used to beat the crap out of bullies at my school, which ironically made me seem a bully :thinking:

[drfate786 1690]

8 hours ago, Chorale_ said:

You have a point, I'll give you that. Though it needs to be controlled to an extent. When it's so bad that it makes someone want to not live anymore, I'm sure that the behavior isn't so natural anymore and it's just out of pure hatefulness - harassment, one could even go as far to say. 

 

If this were taken in as a bill I'm sure all the congressmen could argue for hours. There's no good argument for it when it boils down though. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers, resulting in around 4,000 deaths per year. For every one of those, there are at least 100 attempts. If I calculated correctly, that's roughly 400,000 attempts per year. Most of those suicides (and attempts) are caused by bullying. I couldn't find a statistic for that, but I did read several articles. Eventually, the congressmen wouldn't be able to find any more arguments (or any congressmen in the right mindset) and it'd go to the President. Considering that he's a big bully himself, he probably wouldn't approve but I'm sure that a 2/3 vote from Congress to override his veto would occur. This is purely if we lived in a perfect world, however. Just like there are with LGBT rights, there would be protests and eventually, they'd give in and it'd be considered against the law. 

0

Upvote

 

 

Bullying isn't the main cause of suicide, mental illness and substance abuse is. If someone is chronically depressed or suffering from any form of mental ailment they are extremely more likely to commit suicide. I've been bullied before and know many others who have and none of us have ever thought of committing suicide while it was happening and if we did we went and sought help. In fact, we told the teachers a few months later and stood up for one another, the bullies were spoken to and never harassed us again.

 

There's a difference between bullying and harassment too. If the bully simply treats you like garbage whenever you approach them and has toxic behavior towards you and your friends then it's not harassment and trying to do anything about it at that point is sociopathic on your end, you can't be friends with everyone. However, if they constantly stalk social media, turn your own friends against you and attempt to blackmail you or threaten you then that is harassment and can be dealt with legally or through the school system. Extreme forms of bullying will always count as harassment and is in fact illegal.

 

Now I feel like I'm going to get attacked simply for saying what I've said but I have friends who have suffered from depression including myself and some of them (albeit few) have attempted to take their lives. After thorough conversation with them though, none of them were being bullied and none of them are having any intense difficulties in their lives right now. I told them they should seek a therapist and they agreed, none of them are in denial that they need counseling and both have gotten considerably better since I gave them advice.

 

 In response to that bill you're talking about, we can't strip people of their rights and demolish our democracies to get rid of bullying in high schools, we can't turn our countries into socialist-communist dystopias because the LGBQTGOSHJULAf social justice community says it would eliminate all our problems. We shouldn't allow madness and what we describe as "weakness" in the literal sense to overtake our society and plummet it into anarchy so we don't offend anyone. Getting rid of bullying won't stop people from committing suicide, it will just mask the source of it all and prevent those who need help from getting it. In a sense, bullying reveals those with mental ailments and with proper measures can help them seek counselling. Bullying is something that will always exist and there's nothing we can do about it.

 

If you or your friends suffer from suicidal thoughts, please get some help. Seek a therapist or a psychiatrist, call any suicide help line and go seek counselling. You're not alone, there's a lot of people out there who need help too.

[adamc2000 1385]

Sincerely sorry for your friend inshallah she will recover, ill ask my Sheikh if he could also help us address the issue of Bulling i myself been bully hence one reason why im home schooled, Inshallah Allah help you guys. tho im not sure how this will be implemented but the fact the school wont do anything is a great concern, all i can really say is try to step up and dont ever back down from Bullies no matter the cost cuz if you dont step up the issue wont be fix, the bill i have to say has good and bad coming from it from what im getting but if it does get to trump i dont know how he will be address by this but it may lead somewhere, i hope your friend doing well and give them my salam. <3 "for indeed with hardship comes with ease."

[rukio 8924]

10 hours ago, Chorale_ said:

When it's so bad that it makes someone want to not live anymore, I'm sure that the behavior isn't so natural anymore and it's just out of pure hatefulness - harassment, one could even go as far to say. 

Upvote

 

No offense, but as a general rule of thumb, from my own experience, if someone is going to commit suicide...it probably isn't due to the bullying, though that adds to it. Mental problems and drug abuse, like drfate said, are more likely to be the cause. Your friend has bipolar, I assume, from her OD drug of choice. According to the NCBI website, at least 25% to 50% of bipolar sufferers will attempt suicide at least once. 

 

This might sound rude but...are you sure your friend was taking their medication? I made a few suicide attempts in high school and it wasn't until I hit 18, got properly diagnosed with my mental disorder, and started with treatment that I stopped being as suicidal. Whenever I stop actively working on mine the thoughts sometimes come back. I can't help but wonder if that was a factor in your friend's attempt.

 

This might sound heartless but...if you are getting bullied online, just log off. It isn't that hard to get up from a computer and press the power button and carry on with your life. No one can live in your head for free, you give them the power to be there.Sometimes when we're younger, everything seems extreme and awful because we haven't lived long enough to know better (and because your brain, especially the decision making area, isn't fully developed until 25, correct me if I'm wrong on that though, been a while since I took a psychology class). There's a time and place for everything, even bullying. 

[Boogie_ 5]

Bullying is definitely a nasty topic and I've known people who has been victims of bullying, and I'm sorry for your friend. But in all reality bullying isn't something that can be stopped. Sometimes people unintentionally bully someone and the victims get too scared to put up a stand or even just mention they don't like what they are recieving. Not only that, but out of 7 billion people in this world there are bound to be people who is going to say something that isn't the nicest thing in the world. The best thing to do is just block the person if it's coming from the internet. That's just my opinion.