Dear future President of the United States,

Imagine a world where no one was miserable, where people seemed bright everyday, where no one got bullied causing them to hurt themselves, or go into serious depression. A world where people wouldn’t be submerged in melancholy. We should be able to live freely. We should have rules and restrictions, so that children can live their lives without being cyber bullied, physically bullied, or coming across racist comments.

One of the types of bullying is cyber bullying. Friends film each other doing embarrassing things and then either threaten to post it or post it without permission. They may claim to just be having fun, but some people don’t see it as a joke. Others may go online and write mean comments and constantly putting people down. Restricting kids from doing certain things online might help slow down or even stop cyber bullying. “The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Study (which covered only high-school students) found that 19.6% had been bullied on school property in the previous 12 months, and 14.8% had been electronically bullied. In both cases, white teens and female teens were more likely to say they’d been bullied.”(DeSilver) People can manipulate each other and force them to do things that can harm not only them, but others. Either way, someone gets hurt in ways we can’t imagine. “Twenty-six percent of dating teens reported experiencing abuse online or through texts from their partners, and 17 percent of all youth said they were cyberbullied by a peer.” (Zweig)

Physical bullying is a more commonly known type of bullying. Threats can leave students feeling insecure and unprotected. We should be able to go to school without worrying about being judged or unsafe. “100,000 students carry a gun to school each day. Among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied by peers. More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school. ” (Statistics) People might say they bring in weapon to defend themselves. That means they don't feel safe when they should. We can’t have unlicensed people carrying weapons around - especially in school. It can lead to avoidable situations. Enforcing the rule of limited physical contact can assist to bring this issue to an end.

The last form of bullying is racism. Today, it’s a very serious problem. Kids don’t understand what they’re joking about. Adults are more careful, but can take it a bit far at times. For some, it can be an extreme distraction. Many people try to shut down stereotypes, but they just get made fun of even more. “Growing up, it wasn’t very common for an Asian-American to be investing as much time as I did in a sport like basketball. On many of the teams I played for, I was either the only or one of very few Asian-Americans. This made me an easy target for opponents, and unfortunately, I was often mocked for my ethnicity.”(Lin) When it starts interfering with our education, that is when we know we have a real problem. Every race should be entitled to education and should be treated the same. This time it isn’t just kids - they can be teachers too. “And when AP courses are available, enrollment among Black and Hispanic students is relatively low. African Americans account for 16 percent of the student population nationally but only 9 percent of students enrolled in AP courses.”(Kooragayala) Yes, we have the right to say what we want, but there should be a limit on how far that can go when it comes to offending people.

I hope you will think about this and realize how important this issue is. It affects schools, people, and the increasing death rates. More kids will be filled with joy, and parents won’t worry about their child getting hurt. Hopefully, rules and restrictions can help this cause.

Works Cited

DeSilver, Drew. "Dangers That Teens and Kids Face: A Look at the Data." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Kooragayala, Shiva. "Race-neutral Policies May Be Well Intentioned, but Can They Truly Desegregate Schools?" Urban Institute. N.p., 06 June 2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Lin, Jeremy. "Opinion: NBA's Jeremy Lin Rejected the Bullies, Dared to Be Different." Newsela. N.p., 19 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

"Statistics." NVEEE. N.p., 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Zweig, Janine M., Meredith Dank, Pamela Lachman, and Jennifer Yahner. "Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying." Urban Institute. N.p., 06 June 2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.