A few weeks ago a 14 year old boy named Jamey Rodemeyer, from Buffalo, New York, committed suicide because he was being bullied. Jamey had been cyber bullied for the past 12 months. He was bullied because of his sexuality. Jamey had idolized Lady Gaga for months. Lady Gaga tweeted “Bullying must become illegal. It is a hate crime.” Lady Gaga is trying to get a law passed to make it illegal to bully people. Some people say that bullying is no big deal and ignore it, but bullying is a really big deal. Put yourself in the shoes of someone that’s being bullied constantly and then see how you feel about bullying.

There are many different types of bullies that people should be aware of. There are verbal bullies, who use their words to humiliate and seriously hurt people. Another type of bully that people should be aware of is physical bullies. Physical bullies use their actions to bully people instead of using their words. Cyber bully is another type of bully, who uses the internet to intimidate people. Another type of bully is an imitative bully. An imitative bully tattles, whines or they can be manipulative.

School is one of the major places where students get bullied. 30 percent of United States students in grades 6th through 10th take place in bullying, whether they are the bully, victim or the bystander that is watching the bullying take place. Everyday 160,000 students miss school because they’re afraid of being bullied. Most of the violence happens on school grounds. About 100,000 students carry guns to school, 28 percent of those 100,000 students have witnessed violence at home.

Bullying can look like many different things. Some examples of physical bullying are shoving people in a hurtful way. Also, hitting, slapping and any physical contact done on purpose to intentionally hurt someone is physical bullying. One example of verbal bullying is calling people names to intentionally hurt them. Threatening someone is another example of verbal bullying.

Bullying is something that should not be taken lightly. People that are getting bullied fear for their life every day. If you see bullying happening you should try and stop it; stick up for the person or people that are being bullied. People say that bullying is nothing serious but people commit suicide or are afraid to go places because of it. Do you still think that bullying is not a serious issue?