STAND UP, SPEAK OUT AND UNITE AGAINST BULLYING!

I think there needs to be more done. People do not just bully for no particular reason. Instead of punishing them for bullying they need to be sat down and have a good talking to; find out what is causing the anger and see what needs to be changed then maybe they will change their ways too. It's not a guaranteeing but you never know.

I do agree, but I personally think the schools should be doing more to prevent this sort of thing from happening. I'd also like to say that a lot of it is from pressure that teens feel. Doesn't help when you see Nicki Minaj shaking her booty on screen or any other "role model" for that matter. It then becomes a state of mind that you should look/dress and act like the person you see on screen. It's unfortunate but that is also a source of where bullying comes from. Everyone has seen "Mean Girls," movies like this just make bullying a part of the norm.

It is truly remarkable that people can continuously cause an issue that is so overdated and wrong. It is time to stand up and be the change that we would like to see in the world. Actions speak louder than words and this is relevant. Thank you for raising awareness.

It's sad to see and hear a person end her life due to bullying. As my law teacher says, if we were to add penalties into the law that go against the acts of bullying, the rate of people bullying could possibly go down. And as a student who was once bullied and is now part of anti-bullying groups, I agree with him. It may seem like a silly idea, but can you imagine the fear to commit the act of bullying if it was punishable by the law? It doesn't have to be a severe punishment... maybe some community service or – what my teacher suggested – a series of "how not to bully others" classes.

Bullying is everywhere, isn't it? A lot of people don't realize they're bullying, for example - teachers. When I was in elementary school there was one boy in my class who used to get slammed around and harassed a lot. The teacher in the class really didn't help, in fact, he just made fun of him, and when that happens it's really hard to make it stop because you think of the teacher as someone who is going to help and protect you. When that's gone, what is there to do?

I don't think the teacher realized what he was doing, but my point is that it's really difficult to stop things when it's under the radar or not very obvious at all.

In my opinion, bullying is a direct offshoot of peer pressure and insecurity. It takes courage to stand up for anything and oftentimes I feel teenagers just don't want to attract excessive attention on themselves. However, it is not just important, but necessary to state your views against bullying when the time arises. Believe me, even one voice can make a life's worth of difference.

Being a high school student, it is expected to deal with these occurrences every day in today's society. It has become normal to pick on particular people and harm them physically and psychologically - if these do not pan out, cyber bullying becomes an easy option.

Due to the Amanda Todd incident, the issue has been blown up. However, what if she didn't kill herself? The issue would continue to slip under the radar, as many students too weak to speak up allow themselves to be treated like a monster. Amanda Todd is definitely not the first victim, and will not be the last - once the hypersensitivity revolving around the subject dies off, so will the support and measures taken to removing some of the bullying issues.

As a parent and teacher, it's obvious that we have clearly failed our youth when it comes to protecting them from bullying.

Ceilidh is bang on. She knows the key to ending the bullying epidemic, - PEER ADVOCACY.

Schools must provide more time and resources to address this in the curriculum.

As she points out, schools need to teach students peer advocacy skills in order to have an effective bullying prevention program.

It's time educators recognize that the power to end bullying has always been, and will always be, with the students.

As this article states, we all need to be doing more to combat bullying! It's a shame no one stood up and spoke out for Amanda until it was too late.

Let's learn from this. Whenever we observe bullying, do something. Do what's right... SPEAK UP!