by Jeanni Ritchie
I was at a play, scrolling through my phone at intermission when I saw a message that my 14-year old niece had died from suicide following intense bullying. I was devastated.
It happens more and more these days and conversations take place only after tragedies.
Bullying has been around forever. I dealt with bullies as a child and ashamedly became one myself in high school. But this new level of bullying is emotional warfare and takes place both online and IRL.
Susan* is a 10th grader at a local school. The other girls often pick on her but it is when she gets home that the terrorism starts. Her sister tells her daily to kill herself and after two unsuccessful attempts, she taunted her for even screwing that up.
Billy* has just finished 8th grade. After three years of constant harassment by his peers, along with physical intimidation, he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue living. The only sliver of hope he has is that high school will be different.
The day after I learned my niece died, I overhead a conversation between two teenagers about threats one had received of an upcoming violent “hazing” ritual. I couldn’t stay silent any longer and insisted he tell an adult.
The power of bullying grows in its silence and too many kids are suffering alone.
Children who are bullied suffer more headaches, stomach aches, depression and anxiety. Mental health problems associated with bullying tend to last until later in life. Children who bully, and those who are bullied, are at greater risk of suicide. (PrevNet, 2025)
One of my favorite anti-bullying movies for elementary ages was Chrissa Stands Strong. The American Girl Doll movie made a great vehicle for an anti-bullying seminar at the Oklahoma school where I taught. I also watched carefully and kept on open dialogue with my students.
But middle school is a little different because the students have multiple classes and social media can destroy a life quickly.
Books, series, and films seek to address bullying and teen suicide but some have a reverse effect. I call it the Teen Mom effect. Suddenly these pregnant girls have babies and fame and a tv show and the message of how hard it is becomes lost. Same with the increase in suicides after 13 Reasons Why became so popular.
This is why it’s vital not to leave education about these topics to the media. We need to be discussing these things in our homes, our churches, our schools. Coaches need to protect their teams. Students need to speak up. We need open dialogues and zero tolerance for bullying.
Student suicide rates are alarmingly high. We must do better to stop this.
Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.
