Not so innocent anymore.

Across the country hundreds of thousands of kids are playing in the playground during recess. Jaheem Herrera is not one of them. Jaheem hanged himself in his closet after coming home from what seemed like an average day at school. Just came home, showed his mother his report card with A's and B's and went upstairs. Later that night his mother called him down and received no answer. When she went to his room to investigate she saw her 11 year old son hanging in the closet. He was only 11 and it seemed like life has just began.
Jaheem isn't the only one to end his life early because of bullying. Teens and pre-teens across the country tragically end their life while dealing with depression caused by bullying. Between 1995 and 2004 more than 3,000 children between the ages of 10-14 committed suicide, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Children seem to get get meaner every year. Children get made of fun of for the simplest things, being overweight, not wearing brand name clothes, or looking different.
And it doesn't stop here. Kids across the nation are being cyberbullyied. They no longer have to deal with just insults at school, but insults on the internet. The internet age is a beautiful things and it keeps us connected. But not for Megan Meler. After multiple insults from who she thought was a boy she committed suicide. The person that posed to be this boy was a mother of one of Megan's peers. She was only 13 and had great things going for her. Where does it stop?
I had my share of being insulted and through the years I learned to ignore them over time. But not everyone deals with their troubles that easily. Kids get pushed around, insulted, and put down in front of others. After looking through many cases of teen suicide most kids have been physically abused and most have been labeled as being 'gay'.
Although the schools try to prevent these actions, most either fail or just try to ignore the problem. What we need is heroes. People in those classrooms that will stop this from happening. I, along with almost every other student that has been in high school, can safely say that we have seen someone being bullied, insulted, and being prayed on for being different. But almost never has anyone stepped in and said stop. We just stood along and maybe laughed or just pretend it isn't happening.
We need the average day hero. We need our peers to step up and end this. It would be impossible to eliminate all the bullying in every school but through proper education maybe one day we can all feel somewhat safer that our kids or siblings are not living in fear from day to day.