Two widely publicized suicides by students in Massachusetts - an 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl - show the ultimately destructive impact of peer bullying - in person and by texting and e-mails.

The Massachusetts suicides - Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who hanged himself a year ago April 7, and Phoebe Prince, who killed herself in January - both had been hounded by students in their schools.

Felony indictments against Prince's peers implicated in her death came down on the anniversary date of Walker-Hoover's death.

Those tragic deaths were far away in miles, but the same kind of acts that caused them are known in the schools, law enforcement agencies and mental health centers of Northeast Mississippi.

The articles in today's Journal by Lena Mitchell and Chris Kieffer profile bullying close to all of us - and also suggest what can be done to stop and prevent it.

Almost everyone can understand how bullying affects people because our childhood and adolescence have either witnessed it or experienced it. No community is exempted from the possibility or presence of it, although many children and teenagers are silent, fearing recriminations and not knowing where to turn. That fear can turn into the first steps toward ultimate tragedy.

The central issue is trust, which can bring bullied children forward to adults in whom they have confidence, and it can shine a light where many concerned people can work together to prevent it and stop it.

Many times, child development specialists and many parents understand, the problem can begin in family situations where high stress, harsh criticism and physical abuse are routine. Even so, bad situations can be changed to better ones.

A new study, the Boston Globe reported, in the journal "Child Development," by Colleen O'Neal of New York University Child Study Center and her colleagues, describes how the center followed four-year-old children and families over two years while the parents participated in a program designed to improve their parenting and young children's "social competence."

The study found that the parenting program changed how children react to stress on a physical level - that is, it changed their reactions when faced with a potentially stressful situation.

In our region, closely knit and usually open to mutual help, the answer also rests in communities.

The Globe article cited a study by Felton Earls of Harvard University showing that the community culture makes a difference. "In communities where adults feel and take a responsibility for other people's children - not just their own - community aggression is less likely," the Globe reported.

And, of course, answers also lie with the children and adolescents themselves.

Among other facts, today's Journal articles on bullying shine light on resources (and resource people) in our region. It's generally known in personal accounts that bullying is an issue in our region - in schools, in text messages 24/7, and in old-fashioned person-to-person taunting and demeaning directed at children and adolescents who don't deserve it for any reason.

The Legislature this year passed new anti-bullying statutes, and schools are required to devise plans to do something about it. Common sense, observation and a measure of sensitivity can be the first steps to resolving problems and, it is hoped, preventing irreversible damage to young victims and the bullies, too.