Teens need to improve the way they treat the people around them. In our country, bullying has become a massive problem. There has been a significant increase in the number of teen suicides over the past few years. Adults say that unusual behavior is just a phase, but it typically is more serious than this.

We need to band together as one student body in order to fix this problem. Our words and actions towards one another should create an atmosphere of unity and safety. No students in a school should feel that they are unwanted or unsafe while they are inside.

Words can often be misinterpreted and we unintentionally cause others stress or pain. It is so easy to hurt someone’s feelings, so we need to stop it before it happens.

“I was having a communication with a friend, and I answered her back, and she ended up taking it in a mean way and getting hurt,” junior Olivia Byrne said.

Sometimes our words can profoundly affect another person. Our own judgement has an effect on how we think and treat people.

“I judge people by how they, look but in the end I will try to get to know them and see that they are a cool person,” freshman Ireland Cobb said. “I would like to change how I judge them on their appearance and more on how they act, but sometimes my judgement turns out to be true.”

It is not that it’s impossible to treat people solely on how they act, but in order to do this, we need to improve our judgement.

Today, bullying has taken on many different forms. More and more kids are getting hurt from  other people in their environment. People can be targeted and hurt from more than just “face to face” confrontations.

The internet has become a means for people to target and harass others, a form of bullying called cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is when the use of electronic communication is used to bully a person, typically by sending threatening or intimidating messages with the intent of causing the recipient emotional or reputational harm.

”It all depends on the age group and how they have connected throughout the years they have been together. It’s more of a social mentality,” learning support teacher Mr. Dougherty said.

It’s not that bullying hasn’t happened in the past, but lately it has been happening more frequently. Personally, I think that the environment around us might be the reason that we have been acting differently than earlier generations.

It would seem that teens act based on other teens’ behavior, because we want to be involved with our peers. When something happens, our behavior and actions change in response to said event. In our society, drugs, violence, and other destructive behaviors have been deemed “cool,” and as a result more and more teens are mirroring these behaviors without really thinking about what they are doing.

We are all part of the Southern Lehigh School District and we need to work to together to create an environment for the next set of teenagers that will be joining us. Do we want them to think that it is appropriate to bully someone for reasons that are unknown? We need to be setting the right example for the next class.

It doesn’t take much to change the atmosphere around our school. Just invite a new person to your lunch table, talk to someone during class, or do something as simple as picking someone you usually wouldn’t partner up with on a project, just so they feel welcome. Everyone just wants to feel like they have a place in the world, and we should show everyone that we all have a place here with each other.