One thing that I absolutely hate hearing about is someone committing suicide. No matter the person, no matter the situation, I absolutely hate thinking about it. Just this week Fox News posted a story about two 14 year old girls, Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, from Minnesota who had been bullied by their peers so much that they felt that suicide was the only way out. So at a sleepover they created a suicide pact and they both decided to commit suicide. One of the young ladies’ aunt claimed that her niece was teased about her appearance quite often. She had been expelled from her school for defending her friend in a fight as well. Her classmates claimed she was overweight and she had bright red hair, which they also used as a source of the teasing.
The letters both girls left were very detailed. ABC News reports that Haylee asked for everything pink, princess and butterflies. There is no question that these girls had this entire thing planned. Haylee’s aunt claimed that Haylee had even written on her Facebook wall that she really wanted out of the place she was in.
But why at the age of 14 years old, or 8th grade even, do we have students contemplating suicide?
Suicide is a topic a lot of people try to bury their heads in the sand about, but it seems that the more that people try to avoid the emotional topic, we are losing more and more people to it. According the website Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), 1 in 65,000 children ages 10 to 14 commit suicide. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15 to 24 years old in the United States. The website also says that an average of one person dies by suicide every 16.2 minutes.
Now looking at those numbers, those statistics are absolutely horrifying. People are really killing themselves every 16.2 minutes? Why would they want to? What would make them want to end their life completely? I personally don’t think that I can ever say that I have been in the situation that the people I have surrounded myself with have ever come to that feeling, but I can’t be 100% sure either. Suicide is not an answer to taking away the pain because in reality, it is only causing pain for the rest of the family that you are leaving behind and if you were married, leaving your spouse to handle everything on their own. There is just no positive that comes out of it.
I wish there would’ve been someone who had noticed that these girls were in danger and that the teacher would have responded and done something to prevent this situation from getting worse or having to end up where it did. My heart goes out to the families of these two girls.
This is such a sad story. It is so sad to see and hear about how bullying is effecting the lives of people so drastically. The thing is, bullying does not just happen in young teens or children. It happens in even the oldest of adults. I really wish people would choose to live by the Golden Rule. It seems like things would be much better if people would think about how something would make them feel before they do or say it.
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