When Richard Carter was in elementary school, he had to get rides home from his school counselor because sometimes.
Carter said he was bullied from fourth grade until he graduated high school because he is gay.
“Some days were easier than others because I had friends to talk to and to rely on when I was having problems,” said Carter. “But when they all moved away I was left to fend for myself.”
Carter is now a senior from Findlay, Ohio, majoring in visual communications technology at Bowling Green State University. He is one of many students who seem to be opposed of bullying of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered on campus.
Bullying people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is common in schools today, according to the It Gets Better Project website. Dan Savage, the creator of the It Gets Better Project, is scheduled to come to BGSU on April 18.
One of the more recent cases is that of a freshman from Rutgers University. Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in 2010 due to bullying. Tyler was gay, and his roommate secretly filmed Tyler and a boy kissing and then the roommate posted the video on Twitter, according to an article on ABC News.
Rebecca Racich, a freshman, from Euclid, Ohio, majoring in art history said she knows many people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. She also said that she stands by her friends no matter what.
Racich said that she feels that bullying is unnecessary because everyone is fighting their own battles. She also said that she does not see the point in making life worse for someone by bullying them.
Not only do students at BGSU think bullying is wrong, but they have many ideas on how to stop the bullying from ever occurring.
Nathaniel Ingram, a senior majoring in early childhood education from Pemberville, Ohio, thinks that there are many things that people can do to stop bullying.
“Bullying in this day in age can be done in multiple ways – physical, verbal, psychological, sexual, and using technologies like cyber-bullying. Children should be taught at a very early age that bullying is unacceptable, and teachers should stand by that,” Ingram said.
Senior Kelley O’Brien from Fremont, Ohio, majoring in creative writing and women’s studies, said that bullying can ruin people’s lives and can even trigger mental illnesses. She said that suicide is a drastic cause of bullying that can be prevented just by educating people on the effects of bullying.
Also, according to Ingram, children should be taught in school the effects that bullying has on someone and how the person that they are bullying might not ever heal.
“We as the current generation need to realize that bullying is a real threat, and we have to change our views so we can make a better generation and society after us,” Ingram said.