Coming out as who you feel you really are is an amazing thing. Self-actualization and embracing it is one of the greatest feelings on the planet. I remember the times my friends came out to me about their sexuality, and I even received a residual uplifting feeling because another person in this world felt comfortable in his or her own skin.

The bullying that has been happening across the nation against teens that choose to come out is cruel and cowardly, and I want little more than to confront those simple-minded bigots and crush their little worlds with logic and rationale. But I’m a vindictive person, and actions like that only fuel the problem.

Whoever said, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” was a moron. Words are more powerful than anything else on this planet, except for love and music.

With the power of words being understood, I have to say this crusade against bullying is well-intentioned but heading in the wrong direction.

Iowa high school freshman Kenneth Weishuhn Jr.’s suicide was a heartbreaking incident and should have been avoided.

The school failed, parents failed, and education about how to deal with harassment failed.

Kenneth was harassed at school, and the teachers stood in the hall in response to complaints that slurs were being used. The school even had an assembly to address bullying and harassment. Those measures are missing the most vital action schools must undertake in incidents or harassment: Schools must enforce disciplinary action.

If there is a report of a student harassing another student, the school must bring in the student in question and warn them. If the harassment continues, that student should be disciplined. If any more harassment occurs or if it escalates, the student should be turned over to legal authorities and, at the least, suspended or even kicked out of the school. And the school must document all of these events and keep them on record.

It doesn’t have to happen just like that, but having an assembly and posting teachers is an irresponsible response from what I see as a terribly flawed and uneducated group of so-called overseers of youth.

Jeannie Chambers, Kenneth’s mother, said the school did not alert her to the harassment her son was facing, adding that she also didn’t alert the school about her son’s harassment due to her son asking her not to, according to an article in The Washington Post. Jeannie also said Kenneth was worried that, if she intervened, the harassment would get worse, that the harassing students had changed their focus to a pregnant girl.

If alerting the school causes the harassment to escalate or doesn’t spur the school to action, then the police and the media need to be alerted to negligence on the part of the school system. Heeding the wishes of your children is important, but this is not one of those times. This is potentially an illegal activity that could be endangering a child’s life.

And since when is it OK to ignore something because it isn’t your child being harassed but someone else’s? A pregnant girl needs as much protection from harassment as does a gay student.

And as to the parents of the harassing students, where are they? The school should have notified those parents and those parents should be sitting down with their kids to explain, if nothing else, that harassment could bring on legal repercussions.

The school said it has no plans to change its policies and will explore further ways to make students understand bullying is not acceptable, according to an article on Fox News.

School reactions with such lack of action demonstrate the school is poorly managed and unaware that to provide a quality education, the learning environment must be safe and able to allow all students to focus on learning.

Schools and parents and advocacy groups need to focus a little less on their efforts to make people aware bullying is bad, and focus a whole lot more on helping people to stand strong, to understand their rights and to fully comprehend suicide is the worst decision.

Suicide because of harassment is the choice to ignore options and take the easy way out. It is a harsh truth, but it is. Suicide is letting the bigots, the bullies, win. Suicide is setting an example of hopelessness and further damaging the resolve of others being harassed.

Being bullied is a part of growing up, a harsh part, but a part nevertheless. The world is not perfect. People are mean, and you have to be able to stand strong against the bastards of the world and live your life finding happiness despite the haters.

Almost everyone is a bully at one point, and many of us did that bullying while we were in grade school. You might not have been a bully to those embracing their sexuality, but you might have been because of someone’s hygiene or social standing or appearance.

At the same time, most everyone has been harassed at some point. It hurts, but you have to do something about it; be that by alerting authorities or through confrontation. Keeping your mouth shut and hoping something stops might be easier to do, but it is an ill-conceived decision.

Kenneth was receiving threatening phone calls, messages and online comments. Those are all illegal activities. Educating about how bad bullying is isn’t going to stop those things. People are going to be horrible no matter how much you try to enlighten them.

To help curb the bullying, you have to take action in the legal form. You have to put yourself out in the open and make your situation known. You have to protest and write your government representatives and your media. It isn’t easy, but hardly anything that brings change for the better is.

When people will not respond to words to understand the damage their actions do, you must use the law, especially if violence or threatened violence is involved. As long as people believe their actions are not going to get them into serious trouble, they will continue with their behavior.

To stop bullying, we need to continue to teach people to accept all others despite differences. But with that, we need to actively protect our rights and keep ourselves and those we care about safe by keeping everyone informed about their rights and how to protect them. Bullies respond to one thing: power. And the power that most bullies cannot overcome is legal power.