Bullying has always been a common part of the school experience, whether you’re in fifth grade or 12th grade. Unfortunately, I can guarantee that everyone has had at least one experience in which they felt threatened or harassed. Maybe someone shouted out “slut” to you while passing by in the halls, or “accidentally” spilled Diet Coke on your shirt during lunch.

All it takes is one malicious word, and it feels like a serrated knife has been pierced through your heart, sawing its way back out only to be thrust back in again. All it takes is one harsh shove, and you feel like you want to curl up and disappear, out of the hostile gaze of your tormentors.

Maybe, after one particularly brutal day, you feel like you want to die.

Two years ago, Mentor High School student Sladjana Vidovic had enough of the constant, searing burn of humiliation she faced every day, and, a few days before prom, hanged herself right outside her bedroom window.*

Upon Sladjana’s wake, the ringleaders to the deceased teen’s torment walked up to her casket.

And they laughed.

A couple years before this, Jennifer Eyring could no longer endure the incessant teasing about her learning disability and overdosed on antidepressant pills.

In 2007, Eric Mohat shot himself prior to a choir trip because he was bullied for his sexuality.

Weeks later, Meredith Rezak shot herself as well because she too was harassed for her sexuality.

All four of these victims were students of Mentor High School alone. The bullying that takes place in one suburban school in Ohio has grown so out of hand that more and more students are taking their own lives. These adolescents felt so helpless, so broken, they lost their will to live.

You might say, although tragic, these incidents all happened in high school. Surely college students have matured enough to understand the seriousness of harassment.

Don’t think it could happen to a college student? Just a little over a week ago, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped off a bridge shortly after his roommate posted a video of Clementi being intimate with another male.

This cruelty, this ignorance towards the harm one hurtful action can do, needs to stop. The mentality that the things you do or say won’t matter in a couple years is wrong. Throwing a careless insult at that Gothic girl in platform boots just because you don’t agree with her beliefs or simply because she’s different could do far more damage than you could ever imagine. Taunting that terrified boy at lunch because he’s gay could drag him down further into a bottomless pit of depression.

We all need to realize that one hateful word is all it takes to shred a lonely person’s self-esteem. What seems like the smallest action to you could further confirm to someone that he or she has no one to turn to.

Your hatred could be the bullet that ends a person’s life.

Stop this nightmarish cycle of violence and start thinking. Consider how fragile a person’s emotions are the next time you are about to act with hostility. You may not have meant to cause serious damage, but know it’s all about perspective.

What if you were insulted about your sexuality every single day? What if you had to ignore the condescending stares of your peers just because your taste is different than the norm? What if you had to constantly hide who you really are?

It would be exhausting, I think. We all hide parts of ourselves to an extent, but some of us are sentenced to wearing a “mask” every hour of every day.

To those who are brave enough to tear this mask off, I admire you with all my heart—and also, good luck, because until people start thinking about the effects of their poisonous actions, you will always be fighting for your right to be yourself.

Editor’s Note: An Oct. 8 article from the Associated Press summarized the recent history of suicides at Mentor High School. For more information about the events referenced in this story, please see the AP article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_re_us/us_bullying_one_town.