We shouldn’t joke about death

Mikayla Zellner, Entertainment Editor

Laughing and cracking jokes with friends should always be encouraged, but there is a difference between laughing together and laughing at someone else’s expense. At Bowie, students constantly hear jokes that aren’t always in good taste, the worst of which being the insensitive jokes regarding death that students make.

It is not okay for any students at Bowie to be making these kind of jokes. This type of buffoonery desensitizes people from all types of negative death experiences and turns it into something that people can feel comfortable poking fun at.

According to Medical News Today, approximately one million people commit suicide each year worldwide. That means about one suicide occurs every 40 seconds, or 3,000 suicides occur daily. Jokes promoting suicide are not appropriate, especially not in a high school setting.

It’s thanks to the United States Constitution that we as citizens of this country have freedom of speech, meaning individuals can’t censor one another from saying what is said as an opinion. We, as students, have the right to express ourselves through any jokes we may please. That’s freedom of speech. But do we really want to abuse our right by making harmful jokes at another’s expense? We must remember to have compassion towards our peers’ experiences and feelings, especially since death is a very delicate topic.

People tend to laugh at things that they don’t fully understand or relate to. When people don’t understand their peers problems, it keeps them for feeling compassion or pity towards them. These uninformed people don’t understand their colleagues experiences, so they have no idea how others will react to their ignorant laughter. Our ignorance and insensitivity towards others’ deaths need to stop now.

There is a simple solution to this insensitivity issue. Students at Bowie need to stop making these jokes right now. All of them. All of the “I am going to kill myself” or “Go die” comments have got to permanently be put to an end. Even though some students at Bowie may not find them offensive, I can guarantee you someone else will.

We need to know our limits and put a stop to these kind of jokes. It’s not always obvious who is struggling with depression or who has experienced a loss, so at least stop making these jokes here at school.