Bully - The movie

[gindie]

My wife and I viewed a film this afternoon that made me angry, sad, and a little bit hopeful about a problem among our young people. The film does a tremendous job identifying the problem and the devastating consequences it can have.

The film crew followed several kids and their families for a year, documenting the bullying they experienced, their feelings about it, and the frequently ignorant and ludicrous responses to it by school officials.

We identified very much with this film as we have experienced many of same things as these families. It can be very frustrating trying to get action by the schools, because many times the damage is psychological and is not as apparent as a bleeding wound or a broken nose.

I strongly recommend this film for parents (and grandparents) of school-age children. It's not in a lot of theaters currently, sometimes only 1-2 screens in larger cities. I assume it will be released on DVD eventually.

 

[RunningBum]

I'll check it out when it gets to DVD. I went to the middle school in Sioux City that one story was filmed at. It was a junior high school with a different name back then.

 

[BigE]

Heard a review of this movie on NPR and it sounds like they really did a good job in exposing how complicit kids and ADULTS are in tolerating bullying and verbal abuse of kids who are even the slightest bit different. As a product of a big class size baby boom public school, I have seen bullying first hand. Grateful I wasn't small in size and sort of fit in. My wife and I have a ZERO tolerance for bullying or harmful talk about others...I can only hope our kids turn out to have respect for others. My favorite bumper sticker is the simplest of messages: Mean People Suck. We absolutely need no more mean people!

 

[haha]

We absolutely need no more mean people!

Lotsa luck with that. To my eye, there are more nasty people every year.

 

[Texas Proud]

My wife is studying to become a teacher and wants to see the movie....

I will have first hand in dealing with the school about bullying as a group of kids have been doing it to my son for awhile.... I just found out about it when one of them hit my son this past Friday... I doubt that anything of substance will be done as the guys doing it are the 'jocks'...

 

[Nemo2]

Guess when I was a kid 'bullying' was just called 'life'......something one dealt with.

 

[John Galt III]

I think bullying in the workplace is on the rise also, for some reason. You'd think it would be rare since it is so "politically incorrect", but it seems to be tolerated, especially by those who are NOT being bullied.

 

[Sarah in SC]

My nephew had a bit of trouble last year with a bully at school. Apparently the other kid had been picking on him (he's pretty small for his age) and calling him names. So my nephew waited til they were both getting off the bus and popped the other kid a good one in the nose. Both sets of parents were called, and the school decided to call it even. I thought it was a sensible way of handling it, and the two are friends now.
My BIL has taught the kids how to defend themselves against bullying, physically if needed, as a matter of course, and as a last resort.

 

[harley]

I think bullying in the workplace is on the rise also

I'm not going there regarding the workplace, although I'd like to see some studies showing whether it is rising or not. However, it seems that in regards to the kids bullying is actually decreasing while media coverage is increasing. Damn media.

See this for one example. The Panic Over Bullies - WSJ.com

Despite the rare and tragic cases that rightly command our attention and outrage, the data show that things are, in fact, getting better for kids. When it comes to school violence, the numbers are particularly encouraging. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 1995 and 2009, the percentage of students who reported "being afraid of attack or harm at school" declined to 4% from 12%. Over the same period, the victimization rate per 1,000 students declined fivefold.

 

[gindie]

So my nephew waited til they were both getting off the bus and popped the other kid a good one in the nose. Both sets of parents were called, and the school decided to call it even.

It was VERY fortunate for your BIL and nephew that it turned out that way. From first-hand experience and informal knowledge of other situations, your nephew would get the sole punishment in a majority of cases.

 

[gindie]

My wife is studying to become a teacher and wants to see the movie....

I will have first hand in dealing with the school about bullying as a group of kids have been doing it to my son for awhile.... I just found out about it when one of them hit my son this past Friday... I doubt that anything of substance will be done as the guys doing it are the 'jocks'...

Unfortunately, you may be right about that. My suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the Student Handbook and School Board policies so you know how they are "supposed" to handle the situation when/if you have a meeting with them.

 

[Sesq]

I went to high school with the guy who made this. Funny for me to see this being discussed here. I haven't seen it, not sure if I'll get around to it. Nice enough guy. I wish him the best of luck with his film.

 

[Texas Proud]

Unfortunately, you may be right about that. My suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the Student Handbook and School Board policies so you know how they are "supposed" to handle the situation when/if you have a meeting with them.

Thanks, a great idea....


So far, I can only find they will take 'action'.... nothing on what that 'action' would be...

 

[eytonxav]

For some reason, this movie is not being played in many theaters. Did they think interest would be limited and it wouldn't make money

 

[JSadler]

For some reason, this movie is not being played in many theaters. Did they think interest would be limited and it wouldn't make money

That's a really good question. I wonder why they decided not to release it in the theaters. It's such an important topic that needs to be discussed more. I agree that it is a part of life and we must deal with it, but it also does seem that a lot of bullying has become more twisted and harsher than when I was a kid.


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[tryan]

Good topic ... not much different from - why we need moderators.

Carry on ....

 

[gindie]

For some reason, this movie is not being played in many theaters. Did they think interest would be limited and it wouldn't make money

It got off to a slow start when the distributor got into a dispute with the ratings folks over how many uses of the "f" word would be in the final product. They were going to release it unrated, which would have almost killed chances for anything but a minimal release.

They came to an agreement to reduce the number of uses (I noticed 1 when I saw it), so it currently has a PG-13.

Documentaries traditionally don't get the play in regular theaters that the entertaining films do.

I believe it is growing in distribution.