Lance Lundsten, suicide following alleged school bullying.
Kameron Jacobsen, suicide following alleged bullying over Facebook..
Justin Aaberg, suicide following school bullying.
Billy Lucas, suicide following school bullying.
Asher Brown, suicide following school bullying.
Seth Walsh, suicide following school bullying.
These
all may just be names, but to me they are all people that have taken
from this earth to soon in 2011. The amount of suicides of LGBTQ teens
throughout Canada and the United States is astonishing. Gay teens are
about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide. Teens in a unwelcoming
environment are 20% more vulnerable. The social environment is so
important, to the well being of LGBTQ students. A study was done
in high schools although out the state of Oregon. 32,000 grade 11
students were surveyed. The studies showed that 21.5 percent of gay
teens surveyed reported suicidal emotions and/or actions. Meanwhile only
4.2 percent of straight teens reported the same. It is time to find a
way to stop this. For people to stand up, and defend those who cannot
defend themselves. Adults need to show their acceptance, these teens
need help. Personally, within schools, there should be a lot more
investigation into bullying. There needs to be more people getting
punished for what they are doing. And possibly if other people see
bull's getting in a lot of trouble, they'll think twice about opening
their mouth and lives could possibly be saved.
You should check out Montreal Simon's blog - he's a strong anti-bully advocate as well - particularly with LGBT kids.
ReplyDeleteWow, the statistics in this definitely are astonishing! I agree with what you said here, more action needs to be taken to prevent bullying from happening and leading to these tragic suicides
ReplyDelete