TW Suicide, Bullying 

Bullying happens to one in seven people. The effects that bullying has are very serious, including suicide, self harm, drug addiction, and former victims even becoming bullies. 

Sadly, suicide is the largest result of bullying and that’s something that unfortunately can not be undone. Self harm goes along with suicide. 

One case of this happening is of a 14-year-old taking her life on February 10, 2023. The girl’s name was Adriana Kuch. Kuch was bullied by a group of students on her way to class. There was no motive or reason that prompted their actions. 

While these actions were occurring, a student bystander recorded a video. The video was sent to Adriana with nasty comments over and over again. The school responded to this incident by suspending the students. Shortly after, she committed suicide. Students are now afraid to go to school because they could be next.

Another effect of bullying is people turning to drugs and alcohol. People who are suicidal tend to do it as a way to escape from their problems, to forget or pretend that it’s not happening to them. 

Drugs have side effects, they vary from headaches to heart attacks, liver damage, and an increased risk of mortality. . 

The last effect that has been listed is more bullies. When a person gets mad, they tend to take it out on something and or someone. It becomes a domino effect and it never stops. They want to put their pain and anger onto something else and a lot of times it’s at people.

There are multiple types of bullying. There is cyber bullying, verbal bullying and physical bullying

Cyberbullying is when bullying occurs online, usually through text calls, videos, social media games and more.

The effects that it can have on the person that’s being cyberbullied are depression anxiety, low self-esteem, isolation and no security, poor concentration and focus, anger and aggression, and feelings of helplessness. Every one in four students have been cyberbullied and one in six have been perpetrators. 

The way this can be handled is by blocking the bullies.

The next two go together, they are verbal and physical bullying.

Verbal bullying is when someone uses words to harass, hurt, or scare another person. Verbal bullying can look like threats, teasing, insults, name calling, and or discriminatory comments. Discriminatory comments could be  jokes, slurs, or other negative comments relating to someone’s gender, race, sexuality or abilities. A study done on middle and high schoolers reported that 14 percent of them have reported being verbally bullied. 

Physical bullying is where a person uses an object or or their body to harm or threaten someone. Examples include hitting, shoving, tripping, kicking and or punching a person. About 20 percent of students have been physically bullied.

Bullying happens every day and if a person is being bullied they should tell a trusted adult, call 988 or text 838255.