“I had to stay weak,
and stay silent, because if i say one logical thing I shall be teased until the
last breath.” Yasmeen Khair
That might have been the reason why she couldn’t take it
anymore, the reason why she gave up on that fight more almost one year ago.
Her name was Felicia Garcia. She was 15 years old and died
throwing herself under a train October October 25, 2012. She was a victim of
bullying and from what has been said, people responsible for defending her
rights, being her voice when she was too weak to rise strong in front of the ones
assaulting her emotionally, people who had had the power to stop this mind game
didn’t do it. Felicia Garcia was tired of people teasing her, picking on her.
She was exhausted by the pulling of people on her emotions who were already
weak from a life that had already taken too much of her happiness away from
her. She wanted to find peace, to go somewhere she would finally get some rest
and drop that burden she was carrying once for good.
People usually say when they tease you “ I am joking” or “it
is just a little teasing game” but they don’t know how much the words hurt, how
long they stay in your mind and haunt you everyday and every night. They don’t
know how it feels to hear them day after day, to be weakened, belittled, and
treated as if you are worth nothing. They don’t know how it feels to put a mask
and smile everyday, pretend that everything is alright and that their words
can’t break you when truly deep down, every single word they pronounce is like
a hammer that breaks you and leaves you in pieces. They don’t know that until
the day she died, until that day those words pushed her to the breaking point
and made her end this mind game by taking away her own life.
A lot of things are being done to help people have better
lives: medicare, assistance for ill people, financial aid, opportunity,
counseling, fight against hunger, cancer and so one. but really how much is
being done to stop bullying? So many teen already lost their lives trying to
stand against the reluctant bullying they were subjected to:
“Bart Palosz A
15-year-old Connecticut boy who committed suicide after his first day of school
last week underwent years of bullying and published increasing warning signs on
social media before his death” reason? bullying
“Jadin Bell, 15, a
sophomore at La Grande High, was found hanging from playground equipment at a
grade school two weeks ago.”- reason? bullying
“Fourteen-year-old
Hannah Smith, of Lutterworth, Leicestershire, England, was found hanged in her
bedroom on Friday” (cyberbullying and troll)- reason? Bullying!
“TAMPA, Fla. - For
nearly a year, as many as 15 girls ganged up on 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick
and picked on her, authorities say, bombarding her with online messages such as
"You should die" and "Why don't you go kill
yourself." Rebecca couldn't take
it anymore. She changed one of her
online screen names to "That Dead Girl." She messaged a boy in North
Carolina: "I'm jumping." And then, on Monday, the Lakeland girl went
to an abandoned concrete plant, climbed a tower and hurled herself to her
death.”- reason? More f*cking bullying!
“Jamey Rodemeyer, from
Buffalo, New York, cried for help online for months before his death and his
family and friends said suicide was a popular topic with him. He regularly posted
about being bullied at school and how people would launch gay insults at him…But
what was worse for Jamey, was that when he wrote of his pain and frustrations
and cried for help in his blog postings, students at his school started to
bully him online. About 12 months ago on
his Formspring account - which permits anonymous posts - other students started
making gay references towards him.
'JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!' read one post.
Another read: 'I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it
:) It would make everyone WAY more happier!'
On September 9, Jamey
wrote on his Tumblr site: 'I always say
how bullied I am, but no one listens. What do I have to do so people will
listen to me?'” – reason behind suicide? F*ncking bullying and people doing nothing
and if they were, it was to make things worse by pushing him closer to the grave
with those kind of words.
The statistics for teens with bullying induced suicide are
alarming. According to the CDC bullying if ranked third among the leading
causes of death for young people aged 10 to 24 years old. Bullying suicide
results in 4400 lives lost each year (yes you did read right). Felicia wasn’t
the first one and she won’t be the last because they are still some people out
there that do not understand that word can do more harm than sticks and stones.
Until those people bullying the rest of the world and picking on them “just to
joke around” or “have some fun” are not taught tolerance, acceptance and told
that they should not be messing around with other people emotion, we will
continue helplessly to cry our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins,
nephews, nieces and so on.
In this Bullying awareness month, let’s all stand against
bullying. No more bullying, no more crying, no more teen taking away their
lives because of words/names they are being called. Let’s put an end to
bullying so that what happened to Felicia never happens again.
“I bet the people who were bullying you only dreamed about
one thing: being like you. They couldn’t so they tried to break you down. They
thought they had succeeded but they were wrong.
Now you are in a place where they won’t touch you and where their words won’t
matter anymore. You are one of these stars in the sky, shinning bright when
everything seems dark (as usual)… we will never forget you Felicia. RIP”
