I’m going to tell you a fictional story about bullying. Although it is fictional, the circumstances of the story are very common. And no matter who’s getting bullied or how harsh the situation, bullying hurts and it should be seen and noticed.

Josh is a new freshman at Arrowhead High School, he is an extremely smart and talented boy. He plays on the soccer team, and is in very high levels of math and science.

But Josh just moved to the Arrowhead School district from Little Rock, Arkansas and has a very strong southern accent.

And even though he has a lot going for him, he gets bullied. Kids on his soccer team say things like “Hi, I’m Josh from Arkan-sas and I like Nascar and talkin’ REEEEALL slllowww.” At first it didn’t bother Josh, but as it got more intense, Josh started to be really hurt by it.

Girls would add him on Facebook just to harass Josh. They would make fun of all his pictures and say that he was really ugly and no one would ever want to date him or even like him.

By this point, even the small stupid comments in the hallway made Josh angry. Comments like “stupid freshmen” and shoves in the hall way made him want to just break down.

And to make the whole situation even better, his parents are never home, they do love him but are never home to show it. He just wants to feel loved.

One day Josh had a really bad day, everything that happened was just wrong. He failed his math test and was benched at his soccer game because of it. His ex-girlfriend called him and told him to go kill himself, and his “friends” told him that there was a party that night, but when he went to the address they gave him it was just an old beat up house.

He realized what was going on and felt really hurt. He went home and was in the middle of writing a suicide letter when all of a sudden his phone rings. It was his best friend Drew from back in Arkansas, Josh didn’t want to answer, but then changed his mind. While talking to Drew he went back to feeling happy, being able to remember the old times and just be able to enjoy talking with someone.

Josh told Drew how he was feeling and Drew talked him into moving back down to Arkansas and living with him instead.

Thankfully for Josh he was able to be talked out of committing suicide, but unfortunately for too many other high school students help comes too late.

The bullying needs to stop. It should not be tolerated and should never be encouraged. If you or someone you know is being bullied, you need to tell someone that you trust and can help.