Look at all the kids dying thanks to bullying. According to statistics, 70% of kids in the United States are being bullied. That’s a lot of kids! And 85% of school shootings have been linked to bullying. Now with harsher punishments, imagine what could happen. Don’t you want it to stop?

Bullying can influence negative actions of the victims of bullying. In one case, Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old girl, committed suicide after being tormented by her classmates. Some kids also cut themselves in a way of trying to relieve their pain and to get noticed. Another thing children do is force themselves to throw up with their fingers or harsher medications found in their medicine cabinets. This can be very harmful to the digestive system and can cause future health problems.  

Kids also try to avoid school and their bullies to alleviate their anxiety due to the bullying. Students fool their parents into thinking they are sick. This has a harmful effect on a student’s academics and can ruin their chances of being successful after high school. After all, an individual’s performance in school is detrimental to their careers. According to research, 1 out of 10 students drop out of school because of bullying. 

     
Victims of bullying find the school environment to be a very unsafe place and are petrified to even step foot into the place where they are bullied. They have no friends to help them in this situation because the bully has snatched everyone away from the victim of bullying, making the classmates they were once friends with bystanders. And when it is time for the staff to come in and aid the student, they are not being as helpful as they should be. As of right now, there is not enough being done to support the victims of bullying and punish the bullies, but if we act upon these cruel situations and punish the bully the student will feel something is being done. In addition, the bully will fear to bully someone to avoid getting in trouble.

On the other hand, some people would say bullies are already punished enough. In the article, “Phoebe Prince’s Legacy”, Eileen Moore say, “You have to get the person bullied stronger.” Although bullies seem to have low self-esteem and confidence issues, it does not mean we should help the bullies. Every person should already have the morals to respect a person no matter what the circumstances are. If bullies are punished more, this would not be happening in the first place. The person bullied is already going through enough and should not feel isolated or alone if no one is assisting them.

Therefore, there should be harsher punishments in schools for bullying. With all that is happening in the news, it is a must that bullying stops. We are losing lives over the torturing of innocent kids who have done nothing wrong. Bullies are the evil ones that suck the happiness of naïve children. How many more lives do we need to lose, for reform to occur?