13 Reasons Why: Opening A Door Into Suicide

Every day, teens around the world deal with bullying and depression. Even at New Ulm High School, we see and hear others treating each other so badly that it makes a person feel like they are nothing. The Netflix original series show 13 Reasons Why came out last Friday (3-31-17). The show takes place around a teenage suicide. In the show, Hannah Baker records tapes to thirteen people who lead her to commit suicide. Clay Jensen gets a box full of cassette tapes that Hannah recorded for the thirteen people. Author Jay Asher raises many issues of young women’s experience, the role of reputation in high school, and the cruelty of teenage bullying. In the book, Hannah had lies spread about her, guys grabbing at her body, girls were unkind, and teachers didn’t help her enough. Many people go through similar pressures without becoming clinically depressed like Hannah did.  In many cases where people kill themselves, we never completely understand why.

In New Ulm High School, we go about our day hanging out with the same friend groups and doing the same thing we did they day before. What people at our school don’t really pay attention to is what other people say just passing in a hallway or in a classroom. I have recently started to pay more attention to the words people say to each other at our school. I hear people still using the terms: gay, slut, whore, retard, and idiot in a joking manner, but how do they make others feel when they walk passed?

A school in the Peninsula School District Issued warnings by sending letters to parents/guardians of students warning them about the school and insisting that the parents get more involved in the kid’s life. The letters also included how to get help if they show signs of committing suicide. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of teenagers death in the United States and should not be taken for granted. The Netflix show is opening doors into a new light of how teenagers deal with the stress of school and bullying.  The people who say suicide is not an option clearly do not understand that some people think it’s the only option. We have yet to find out if there will be a season 2 of the Netflix tv show, but a lot of critics say that the show is very likely to be renewed due to all the talk the show has got in the past week. If 13 Reasons Why has been given a season 2, we will see what happens to one of the characters who tries to commit suicide at the end of the first series.