Last Tuesday, Oct. 8 I walked in the cafeteria not expecting to hear what I would.

I sat at my seat at the usual table, the one almost smack dab in the middle of the cafeteria. My friends and I made small talk until a boy came up to talk to one of them, roughly ten minutes later. He was one of their friends.

He told a story about an overweight girl. Instead of overweight he used fat followed by a vulgar word. This girl was mean to people and one day everyone had enough. They called her out on it, yelling at her. This later led her to trying to hang herself. When she tried, the rope broke.

Everyone at the table that chose to tune in on the story laughed. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Laughs about suicide? Didn’t we just have suicide prevention week not that long ago? Did it mean nothing to them?

Suicide Prevention week was intended to bring awareness of suicide and to try to prevent it, hence the word prevention in Suicide Prevention week. It wasn’t to have people laugh about it.

I was shocked that they were laughing. I racked my brain for what was funny in the story but I just couldn’t find it.

I don’t care if she was mean to people. Suicide is no joke and I’m tired of hearing people make jokes about it. It’s a serious matter. Whether the story was true or not, it broke my heart just to hear that the girl had tried to end her life. Who knows if she was being mean to people because she was angry with herself or upset with her life?

Not only do people joke about suicide but they throw around the phrase “Why don’t you just kill yourself” like it’s a new way of greeting people. I don’t understand how a person could sit there and tell someone to kill themselves and not feel any regret, or not imagine the person may do it.

If someone is being mean to you, tell an adult so they can approach it the correct way. Standing up for yourself is great but if you are going to confront them about it, be kind to them even though they are not to you. Two wrongs do not make a right. Be the bigger person.

Instead of laughing about suicide, think about how you can prevent it.