One hundred and sixty thousand students stay home from school every day due to fear of bullying, according to the National Education Association. Students should not have to endure emotional, physical and mental abuse in an environment that should be encouraging and safe. An effective system of punishment for bullies needs to be implemented in all school districts.

Detentions and suspensions are handed out to misbehaving students like candy, but where is the lesson behind these punishments? When does suicide provoked through bullying cross the line to homicide?

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people according to bullying statistics’ website and shocking 2013 bullying statistics show no help to struggling students.

30 percent of U.S. students in grades six through ten are involved in moderate or frequent bullying – as bullies, as victims, or as both – according to the results of the 2013 national school bullying statistics and cyber bullying statistics. In addition, 90 percent of fourth through eighth graders have been victims of bullying as of 2012.

“From what I can see bullying really breaks down [students’] confidence and ability to become comfortable in their own skin, increasing their anxiety,” Tiffany Reagan, science teacher and advocate against bullying in the classroom, said. “It can really snowball into more severe consequences depending on whether the issue is solved or not.”

This issue needs to change. No one should have to live in fear because of how others have mentally, physically, or emotionally hurt them. As bullying statistics are rising, punishments remain stale with no movement forward. Research should be going on to help fix this life threatening problem and find effective solutions to stop bullying. If a disease that was killing around 2,200 children each year and causing 30 percent of students attending schools to suffer, wouldn’t there be research going on? So there is no reason that there are not strides being made to end the growing rates of bullying.

Playground school bullying statistics show that every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Of that, there is a 4 percent rate of adult intervention, an 11 percent rate of peer intervention, and an 85 percent rate of no intervention, according to Ambassadors 4 Kids Club’s website.

It is not right that as administrators, teachers, parents, and peers we just sit back and let children harm each other’s lives and, in seven percent of those bullied, lead young people into taking their own lives.

Reagan is strongly against bullying in her classroom and has a policy of ‘three nice things.’ With this policy, if Reagan feels a student has said something that could be offending to an individual they have to say three nice things about that individual.

“The reason I started ‘three nice things’ was to show students the positive aspects their classmates have learned about them, as well as teach respect,” Reagan said. “Students need to know they are appreciated by their colleagues in order to truly participate openly and learn.”

At least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying and around 4,400 successfully commit suicide, and for every successful suicide there are 100 failed attempts by adolescents, according to bullying statistics’ website.

Just recently the nation was informed of a bullying situation where a 6-foot-5-inch, 312-pound NFL player, Jonathan Martin, left the Miami Dolphins due to bullying.

For someone to dedicate their entire life to football and leave an NFL team, they must have had to go through some horrible treatment. This upsetting event shows the effect of bullying on any person.

The real issue though, is the bully. Richie Incognito has had a past of unruly behavior throughout his years in education and football. He was suspended from the University of Nebraska for “disciplinary problems” and charged with three counts of assault. He was then given the opportunity to go to the University of Oregon as long as he completed an anger-management course and a strict code of conduct, which he violated before suiting up for a practice, according to an article on Chicago Reader’s website. Even after all of these problems caused by Incognito, he made it to the NFL and continues his malicious ways.

Bullies are never just going to go away, but without a consistent procedure and effective punishment bullies will never stop.

“I think the big thing we all need to realize is our words have more power than we think,” Reagan said. “Not only in affecting others, but also as a reflection of who we are.”