Tyler Clementi

As a teacher, this was something I felt compelled to write about.

What were you doing when you were 18 years old? I was a Freshmen at Plymouth State University, I had a boyfriend, and I was lucky enough to attend college with my best friend Becca, because when you’re 18 years old in college what could be better than going to college with your best friend? I couldn’t have asked for more. Every day first thing I would rush down the back stairwell, which reeked of booze and urine, but when you’re 18 in college you learn to wear flip flops everywhere. We would discuss the plans for the night, which involved being reckless at times, drinking because our parents weren’t around and we could finally get away with it, and dancing until the sun came up, and then we did it all over again the very next weekend. I studied, I did my homework, I made good grades, and I had a phenomenal time. I’m sure most students in the United States have stories which would be comparatively similar to mine, perhaps doing homework and making good grades could be substituted with other various non academic activities, but I feel safe in saying for most, college is fun, because when you’re 18 in college you learn that life is “too short NOT to have fun.”

True, life is short, and I am not 18 anymore, I am 22, and I am currently student teaching in Australia. Every day I am reminded that bullying is an international issue, and that when I decided to become a teacher, I wasn’t just deciding to teach kids how to structure sentences, what  nouns and verbs are,  and the difference between your and you’re. I decided to become a teacher because it gave me the opportunity to teach kids about society, morals, rights and wrongs, and about this thing called “life”.  What I did not sign up to teach was how to destroy other people’s lives. I did not sign up to teach them to torment other students, how to be close minded, and how to completely forget that every human being, regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, and sexuality, has parents, siblings, and friends, people that love, cherish, and respect them.

"Jumping off the GW bridge sorry”, was the facebook status 18 year old Tyler Clementi posted before committing suicide. The body of 18 year old Tyler Clementi was found by police, after jumping from the George Washington bridge because his roommate posted a video online of a sexual encounter Clementi had with another male.  I feel as not only a teacher, but a human being, it is my job, all of our jobs, to consider how our behavior affects other people. Words are a powerful thing. We all have the power to  say things and do things that could save somebody’s life, to make them feel wanted, cared for, and appreciated, but we also all have the power to say and do things that could end somebody’s life, to make them feel worthless. Our words and actions have the power to cause somebody else’s last words to be “Jumping off the GW bridge sorry.”

To all my fellow teachers, if you are reading this, remember that your students don’t often times wear their emotions on their sleeve. I was 18 years old once, and while life was fun, I had my struggles, we ALL did. If you hear bullying in your classroom, or in the halls, remember that your job doesn’t just involve teaching a subject, it involves teaching life skills, and one of the most important life skills is tolerance.

To my peers if you are reading this, please remember that we are all on this earth together and if we don’t work together, others will suffer. You can have your own view points, you don’t have to agree with other people’s life styles, but you also don’t have to be destructive. Anybody who has ever been a parent, daughter, son, friend, or sibling, remember that the people you come into contact with every day may also be a parent, daughter, son, friend, or sibling, and you do not have the right to take these people away from the ones that love them.

How often we forget that everything we do touches other people's lives, in both positive and negative ways. Life is so short, that while we are busy living our lives today, somebody else's life may have become a yesterday. So, today, take a moment and think about somebody other than yourself. Think about Tyler and the life he will never get to live because of this hideous cruelty. My heart goes out to the Clementi family and friends.

MTV Article:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1649057/20100930/story.jhtml?xrs=share_fb