Have you ever wondered what life would be like without bullying, school fights, drama, depression, bad grades, and breakups? Well, if there wasn’t those things then life wouldn’t really be life. For some people those things make up their life. If we didn’t have those things then what would people do with their lives? People bully others for no reason, right? What would occupy their time or who would they be mean to next? If bullying wasn’t a thing then life wouldn’t be as hard as people make it out to be. Less people would be depressed and there wouldn’t be as much drama. There wouldn’t be school fights either. If you think about it, bullying is what causes all of this.
I also think if we didn’t have bullying then our community would be better. We make a big deal about it and say it needs to be fixed, but nobody will do anything about it. People won’t stick up to it. I mean those sales in walmart about child suicide and bullying help a little bit, but not that much. On Google it says 7-8% of people attempt suicide every year between the ages of 10 and 24. In my opinion, that is a really young age to do that stuff.
I also found out that another cause for death in kids is fire arms (any type of gun). Honestly, we could do things to prevent that. Some ways are to raise your kids to know what is bad, to keep all dangerous items locked up or hidden, and teach our kids to help others that they know are harming themselves. To teach our kids to help get them help is a good step. Telling kids the the suicide prevention line number at a young age so they remember it is a small thing that can make a difference. Working together is possible, I know it.
Let’s talk about school shootings. I’m only 12 so I don’t necessarily know all there is to know, but I know some ways that we can prevent them from happening. We can take safety precautions to make sure those don’t happen because they are getting worse and worse as time goes by. In the span of 2022, there were about 300 school shooting incidents. We can try to work harder by having more lockdown practices [every 2 weeks or less]. I love my school and I think we can do a lot more to protect it. I love my community and want to protect it.
Let me tell you what inspired me to figure this out: it was actually a song from Dance Moms. I know it might seem funny, but it is serious. It’s called “Where Have All The Children Gone.” It is a scary song, but it is very serious when you think about it. I really love my friends and want to protect them if I can in any way. Did you know that one reason that children kill themselves is because someone in their family has killed themselves or a friend has? We need to do something about it and not let suicide happen.
I want to talk about something I went through. Self harm. I went through this when I was like 10-11 and then again when I was 12. I was doing it because I was insecure about myself, but with the help of family and friends I thankfully got over it. Unfortunately, it’s not like that for everyone. Some parents don’t care that their kids are going through something. Some parents don’t even notice that it is happening to their kids. That’s sad isn’t it? We can’t let that happen. We won’t have another generation. Cutting can turn it to getting deeper and deeper, which can lead to killing yourself.
I want to say all of this because I really think we can do things to change these issues. We can make new programs, learn about different emotions and what they mean, and ways to help our community. Let’s start now. If we dont start now, how do you think our community will get better? It won’t just get better by itself, so we need to stop being scared to protect our children and ourselves. We need to make our world what we want it to be.
Peitan, a sixth grader at Crawfordsville Middle School, submitted this guest column.
