Sticks and stones may break my bones but name calling may make me starve myself…

A staggering 69% of children in the UK have reported being bullied and as the anti-bullying month draws to a close, the campaign seems to have next to no effect.

Almost 30% of youth in the United States (or over 5.7 million) have been involved with bullying in some way. Bullying creates both emotional and potential physical scars that can stay with people throughout their life. There are numerous stories on the Internet that show the distressing results of bullying. You have the mild cases that stop when others intervene but you also have the more extreme cases like Amanda Todd.

What the actual bullies may see as them either being honest or it’s simply “just a joke”, to the person you are saying it to it may seem like you are being serious and it gets really hurtful. Emotional pain can cause other pain - physical pain. Calling someone fat could make them starve themselves or develop an eating disorder. Calling someone worthless may lead them to self-harm or worse, commit suicide.

In the case of Amanda Todd, a simple mistake she made haunted her for the rest of her, short lived life. She got bullied to the point that she suffered from panic attacks and depression. She was attacked for another mistake and tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, but she was caught and therefore taken to hospital. After an increase in bullying after the incident, Amanda Todd hung herself October 10th 2012. She was aged just 15.

You don’t know their situation so why should you mentally abuse someone over something that they are already probably insecure about? Who or what gives you the right? But to all the bullies out there, could you live with yourself knowing that you caused someone to take their life? Could you live with someone else’s blood on your hands?