Wake up call.

Thank goodness they could handle it.
It is deeply saddening that it takes something devastating to happen in order for people to make a change, to be nicer for example. People are bullied all the time in high school. Maybe someone is not bullying one person but is just a mean person, and for some reason most of the time we accept the fact that it just happens. Only when something tragic happens is when teachers, students, communities demand a change immediately.
This was a wake up call that no one was expecting. I did not know this girl, but a freshmen at my school was pushed the the brink by people, and she felt that pushing back was no longer worth it. Battling not only bullying but also the darkness of depression, this girl felt alone in a school of over 1500 kids. Twitter blew up with pictures that had been taken at football games with her, posts expressing how they would be there for anyone if one should ever feel this way, and many more regarding how great she was as a person and how much she will be missed. This was a little more than a month ago. Shortly after this happened we had a school-wide assembly promoting the importance of being kind. The goal was to make a kinder school and I believe that it did make a difference, for about a week. The wake-up call to bullies and mean people jolted them but did not defer them from being who they are. And the bystanders, are still just bystanders, and often just brush things under the rug when they are presented with situations where they have the choice to help or not.
Sadly bullying not what is used to be. If only it was. It would be so much easier to prevent someone from punching someone in the face, than to delete the mean test messages that are sent out or shush all the gossiping that occurs behind closed doors. Bystanders are the root of the problem in my opinion. They conform to be friends with whomever they are around and disregard people's feelings when they are not standing right in front of them. No wonder there are so many individuals that feel alone, in high school, people are really good at making you feel like you are.
What makes me the most upset, angry even, is that this wake up call did nothing to change my school. From my observations, the nice and considerate side of people disappeared in just a few short weeks. If I had any inclination that I had been mean to this girl, it would hang over my head for the rest of my life.
If I had been mean to anyone with knowledge of it, I would thank God Himself every time I saw their beautiful face in the hall way. Thank the Lord, they decided that ledge was not very appealing to them. Sadly, this revelation has not rang through the halls of our school yet, hopefully we do not need another wake-up call to change things.
JSL