By: Molly H.
In Staten Island, a 15 year old girl named Felicia Garcia
went to Tottenville High School and this past October she committed suicide.
Felicia jumped in front of a train at the Railway Station that many students
use to get home. Briana Torres, Felicia’s best friend, said she never
saw it coming. She stated that she seemed happy and Briana did not suspect
anything. The only sign of her unraveling was what she posted on twitter. She
stated, “I can’t, I’m done, I give up.” When Felicia was brought to the
hospital many friends congregated there and soon the news was flying through
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. The conclusion was made that
Felicia committed suicide due to bullying.
She
was mostly tormented by students on the football team. She was teased because
she had piercings and was in foster care. Others made sexual comments about
her. Felicia’s friends states she was a tough girl and never reached out for
help. Felicia did not have an easy life, her parents died when she was young
and she lived with her aunt who she very much disliked. She was also in and out
of foster homes. Her current foster home she finally seemed happy with them
which resulted in her grades improving and her piercings disappearing.
After
Felicia’s death the next day students wore black and purple to show their
respect and to promote anti-bullying. A crowd of five hundred gathered at the
station that night with candles. Many students made facebook pages about
anti-bullying. Investigators looked into her death and tried to prosecute the
bullies but they ended up not being able to do anything. In the end the school
ended up spreading the news of anti-bullying and became a lot closer not only
within their school but also within the community.
This story was really
inspiring. A school went from being full of bullies and problems to a very
close supportive school with caring students. Nowadays Bullying has gotten a
lot worse. Now with all the social media sites cyber bullying has been
especially worse. A lot of schools have done many things to stop bullying but I
don’t think it will ever be enough. No one has ever done anything about
bullying until something major has occurred like a 15 year old committing
suicide. People do not realize how one thing they say can affect someone so
much.
There are a lot of
different stories out there. One of the more famous ones is the story about
Amanda Todd. Her video on YouTube has inspired many anti-bullying campaigns.
Our society needs to stop letting suicide occur and all the other problems
along with bullying. Many people think the government should be involved but I
think that would just create more problems. I don’t think bullying will ever be
stopped but the word needs to be spread and hopefully sometime in the future
bullying will not be a big problem.
It's interesting that you do not think that the government should get involved with stopping bullying. I, on the other side, think that it would be a very good idea if the government were to implicate laws to designate consequences to bullies. This would also have to come with educating children and teens about these laws. My thought process is if there are strict legal consequences, bullying would be reduced because the potential bullies would know they would have to personally pay the price for their actions.
ReplyDeleteIt's just sad seeing and hearing about individuals taking their lives or harming themselves. Some people are just so careless and mean. They don't realize how their words or actions affect a person till it's too late. People shouldn’t wait for something bad to happen. We are all educated individuals. We should know what’s right from wrong and how much our words, actions affect others. I think people bully because they want to make themselves feel powerful and accepted by their peers. I think bullies generally need to have some common sense, right mentality, and acceptance – acceptance from the people around them and accepting who they really are not just emulating a “strong powerful” force. Taking legal action would be good but I think a better way would just be really educating the youth and exposing them to the right environment.
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