Increase in Teen Suicides

Over the last month there has been a disturbing amount of teenage suicides, primarily gay teen suicides. With an increase in bullying awareness, why is it that homosexual students are falling through the cracks? Many people were bullied as teens, including myself. Whether it's your height, your weight, your hair color, how much money your parents have or who you're dating, the fact of the matter is that kids are mean. It doesn't matter who you are, even if you are their friend, kids will find something to harass you about.

When I was in high school at Howell High School in Howell, MI, proposal 2 was passed my junior year in 2004. Proposal 2 banned gay marriage in the State of Michigan. Coming from a conservative town, my friends and I found out repulsion to this proposal in the minority. Now we were probably a little out of line, but we hung a rainbow flag in our school hallway. Let me mention that we had the approval of the administration, I have no idea how we ever received that permission, but we had it. Within the hour the flag had been torn down and stolen. This created a huge controversy in our high school. We were able to recover the flag and had it permanently placed on the wall in our hallway with a logo for our Diversity Club that we belonged to. After we graduated in spring of 2006 it came down, but the point was that we felt we had won a small victory for the time being.

The same year this happened, an openly gay student in our high school had experienced many verbal attacks during a school play. A few theater students decided to spray paint "LOVE" all over the sidewalks and on a giant rock in front of the school (that the students were given permission to spray paint). These students were suspended and forbidden from participating in Senior activities because of their vandalism. The students agreed to pay for the removal of the spray paint on the sidewalks. What started out as a loving gesture for their friend turned into another controversy for the high school. In the past students were known to spray paint on the sidewalk when fellow students had been killed, without repercussions. The students did not expect that they would be punished so harshly for their gesture.

Where am I going with this? I am not homosexual, but I, like many of my peers, was bullied in high school. I was called a "fag", I had things thrown at me in the hall way. One time I had a gingerbread house thrown at me on the bus, thankfully it hit the kid behind me. My friends and I experienced a lot of ridicule for the way we looked, dressed and acted. However, the administration never did anything to stop it. I made it through high school and went to college and graduated and now I have a great job working for a State Representative. The point is, what happens to you in high school does not represent what is going to happen to you in life. No matter what happens to you or what they say to you, nothing can be worth losing your life. I can't sit here and tell you that I never thought about taking my own life. Whenever I thought about it, I thought about how I would effect the lives of my loved ones. Not only would I end my own life, but I would ruin the lives of the people who actually love and care about me.

Those people exist.

Everyone has somebody that cares about them.
Somebody who would cry if you were gone.
Somebody who would never be able to forgive themselves if you ended your life.
Somebody who loves you.

There has been an increase in teen suicide, especially gay teen suicide. Something needs to change. School administrations need to stand up for their student's right to be who they are. School is supposed to be a safe environment. I may have never made it through high school without the help of my guidance counselor, a few great teachers and my closest friends. Students need to find that confidant and school leaders need to make themselves more available for their students. Recently a college student, only a few years younger than me, killed himself because his roommate posted videos on the internet of him performing sexual acts with another male. What is wrong with these kids? Don't you know that your actions do not make you a better person? You are hurting someone, someone who just may end their life over your actions. The student council president at the University of Michigan is being harassed by a person who calls himself the Assistant Attorney General. This man is a public servant, and employee of the State of Michigan and he is carrying on like a teenager. He is posting inappropriate things online and stalking the openly gay student council president. You are entitled to your beliefs, just as I am, but are you trying to push this kid over the edge? Do people do these things because they want gay students to kill themselves? This is disgusting. Mathew Shepard was killed because he was gay. What is wrong with today's society that people can hate so much that they want to end the life of someone because of their sexual orientation, something that doesn't even effect them??

Many celebrities are speaking out about the recent teen suicides. There is help out there.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/