Bullying and Teenage Suicide By: Landon Garsow Kara Krueger Brittney Nuthals

Theme Some teenagers feel trapped and unhappy with their lives, they feel the only way to escape is to take their own lives.

Teenage Suicide in Romeo and Juliet. There are 4 main moments in Romeo and Juliet that shows depression and suicide. 1 st, when Juliet finds out that Romeo has been banished she finds herself in a state of deep depression. 2nd, when Romeo buys the poison, goes to Juliet’s tomb, and kills himself because he thinks that Juliet is dead. When Romeo finds out that Juliet is dead he says, “How oft when men are at the point of death/Have they been merry!” (Shakespeare )

Teenage Suicide in Romeo and Juliet (Cont.) 3rd, when Juliet wakes up in the tomb and finds Romeo dead next to her, so she kills herself because Romeo is dead. Before Juliet killed herself she said “O happy dagger!/ This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die”(Shakespeare ). 4 th, when Lady Montague found out that Romeo got banished she killed herself. Lord Montague said, “ alas, my leige, my wife dead tonight!/ Greif of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath” (Shakespeare ).

Research Question What role does bullying play in teenage depression and suicide today?

Research Source 1 According to the magazine U.S.A. today, there has been a large amount of concern in the country of public suicide threats and actual suicides. A 15-year old, hung herself due to her classmates’ months of bullying.

Source 1 (Cont.) It also happens to younger children. USA Today states that “an eight-year –old student with cerebral palsy threatened to kill herself as a result of harassment”(USA Today). How bullying is handled varies from person to person One person may think that it’s just a joke but the other person may take it seriously, and could send them into depression.

Research Source 2 Christian Science Monitor states that “in March– the term pierced national consciousness when a Massachusetts district attorney indicted nine students on criminal charges arising from the suicide of a teenage Irish immigrant who killed herself after experiencing persistent bullying” (Christian Science Monitor). She committed suicide due to nine students bullying her.

Source 2 (Cont.) In 2009, the number of students that have reported being bullied between the ages of 12 and 18 is 1 out of 3 students. In 2001, only 14% of that population reported being bullied. In 8 years the number of students being bullied has doubled.

Source 2 (Cont.) Studies have shown that when someone is bullied it increases the chance that they will become depressed, further isolated, and do worse academically. All of these things can lead up to suicide.

Research Source 3 According to Silent Epidemic “While suicide rates among adults have steadied or even declined over the few decades, teenage suicide rates have tripled. In 1960, the suicide rate among 15- to 19-years-old was 3.6 per 100,000. But by 1990, 11.1 out of every 100,000 teenagers 15 and older committed suicide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”(Teen Suicide: The Silent Epidemic-Part 1). Teenage rates of suicide have tripled over the past few decades.

Source 3 (Cont.) More than 500 students were surveyed and over 80% of them said that they had been bullied in the past month. Researchers say that bullying is a partial cause to suicidal thoughts or actions. Bullying sometimes goes unnoticed and when that happens it just adds to the pain and stress of the victim.

Connection to Romeo and Juliet Suicide and depression is a major part of Romeo and Juliet. For example, Juliet wants to kill herself because Romeo is dead. She did not want to live any longer without him. It would have been too hard to bear life without him in it so she ended her life. This connects to when people are unhappy with their life, they kill themselves.

Connection to Modern American Teens Teenagers today get bullied and go into depression. Some teenagers even kill themselves because of this harsh bullying. Bullying and suicide rates have increased greatly in the past couple of years and is becoming a big problem.

Thesis It is proven that bullying does indeed play a role in the spike of teenage suicide and depression. Bullying isn’t being addressed in school’s, and that allows bullying to continue. This increases the amount of stress put on children and has been allowing more and more kids to commit suicide.