Roundup editorial board
It’s time to face the facts.
Bullying is nothing new. It can range from schoolyard name-calling to
workplace teasing, from classroom criticisms to online commenting.
Unfortunately, in an age of ever-expanding technologies, the number of
forums used to bully are also increasing.
Take Tyler Clementi for example, a freshman at Rutgers University in
New Jersey. Clementi was a student who took his life because of his
roommate’s disparaging actions that revealed his personal life to the
world.
On Sept. 19, Clementi asked his roommate at the Rutgers dormitories,
Dharun Ravi, to have their room for himself for the night to meet a
friend. Ravi agreed, but turned on a webcam in the room to broadcast
Clementi’s encounter on the internet.
According to CBS News, that same night Ravi wrote a message on his
Twitter account for all to read.
“[Clementi] asked for the room till midnight. I went into [my
friend’s] room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a
dude. Yay.”
The next time Clementi asked for the room, Ravi tweeted again, but
this time his words were accompanied by a live video feed. His tweet
read, “anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the
hours of 9:30 and 12:00. Yes it’s happening again.”
Three days later, Clementi killed himself by jumping off of the George
Washington Bridge.
Sadly, he is not the only one who has experienced this kind of abuse
recently. Student suicides have dominated national headlines in the
last few months, especially in the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer) community. There were six alone in the month of
September.
Why should someone face harassment based on the way they love, or for
any reason at all? Whether the abuse is verbal, physical or in the
form of public shaming, these actions can be detrimental and at times,
lethal.
According to the American Psychological Association, suicide is the
No. 3 cause of death in people ages 15 to 24, and the numbers are
increasing at an alarming rate. Suicide accounts for 13 percent of
deaths in this age bracket.
And these aren’t middle-aged people who are sick of their jobs and
financial problems, or kids who are pushed around at recess. These are
your classmates, the students in your math and English courses.
On that note, it seems fit that we all remember a crucial tip our
mothers gave us the first time we teased a little boy or girl on the
playground in our early school years.
“If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Cliché? Yes, but nevertheless correct. It doesn’t matter if you
believe every word of what you say, the truth of it is what you say
could really hurt someone. Just one comment can really upset the
balance within a person’s self esteem.
Something to think about next time you insult somebody for who they are.
Repeatedly.