"Psychologists seem to be unaware that when they call for laws against bullying, they are declaring the failure of psychology. It means they have no idea how to solve the problem psychologically, but need the legal system to solve it for them." - Izzy Kalman
"Schools need to be held accountable and forced to take action against bullying, and they need to find ways to prevent it in the first place. Right now. Before even more children see no other way out other than to take their own lives."
On April 16, 2009 eleven-year old Jaheem Herrera woke up acting strangely, not hungry and not wanting to go to school. Prior to this day Jaheem had been harassed and called gay, fag, and ugly numerous times by his classmates. They called him a "virigin" because he was from the Virgin Islands his mom says. Who would want to go to school while being taunted and made fun of? That day, he goes to school anyway and comes back excited and happy. He high fives in mother and shows her his report card in which he made All A's. Later that evening his sister calls him down for dinner but she gets no response. His mom, Masika Bermudez goes up stairs to his room and finds him hanging by a belt in his closet. "He used to say Mom they keep telling me this ... this gay word, this gay, gay, gay. I'm tired of hearing it, they're telling me the same thing over and over," his mom tells CNN. At that age being "different" which I think is better than being normal, you get made fun of by other kids cause you're not normal in their eyes. Jaheem was from a different country and he had an accent. So what? But for 11 year olds thats just something that they see they can feed on and pick on. A lot of times its out of jealousy and sometimes kids are just plain mean. "To hang yourself like that, you've got to really be tired of something."
This was of interest to me because of the relevance it has to do with every day kids and teens. It's so tragic and unfair to Jaheem that he never got to fully enjoy life because he was constantly taunted and made fun of. Kids get pushed over to the edge and some can deal with it but others are so sick of it they just snap. I think its quiet awful when people always say "he's the one who killed himself, not the bullies or the words they said." True, he's the one who hung himself but its because of the bullies and their words and how unhappy he was with his life. The kids who bullied him are the reason Jaheem killed himself. There's no justification for what they did. He never did anything to any of them which made it so unfair that he had to be the victim. Hearing about this really brought to my attention teen suicide. There should be ways to prevent it instead of saying what we "could have done." Use this so that next time a child is struggling you can look at Jaheem's situation and see how to prevent it. I believe every life is valuable and everyone should get to enjoy their time on this Earth and not be miserable. Jaheem's life was ended way too early and hopefully with his story, we can stop this from happening to any other kid in his same situation.
STOP BULLYING!!!!!!!!!!
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