All throughout school I was bullied and harassed by different groups of kids. In elementary, I was locked inside a classroom and thrown into a glass fish tank. The principal still refused to admit there was a problem. High school was terrible. I came out as gay and was bullied into self harm and multiple suicide attempts. It got so bad I actually refused to leave my house for six months. I spent a year in inpatient treatment to recover from the problems my bullies had caused me (anorexia, depression etc). Bullying is not a joke. It is not a matter of 'kids will be kids'. This is serious. On March 29th 2013 my best friend was told to 'go kill herself'. On March 30th, she did just that. I lost my best friend, the one person I could count on, because of a bully. How many more teenagers do we have to lose before people realize this is serious? I'm sixteen now, and have been dealing with this for 11 years. It's time to take a stand. This is life or death.