Blog: 'Bully' Should Have PG-13 Rating

Through the efforts of my friend and fellow Human Relations Commissioner Ilona Sherman, I was able to attend a screening of Bully, the powerful new documentary about bullying in American schools.

The movie was filmed during the 2009-10 school year in five American towns.

Bully follows the story of five families dealing with bullying and its sometimes tragic aftermath. It opens with the family of Tyler Long of Chattsworth, GA, visiting his grave—one so fresh the earth is still mounded over it. Tyler was found by his mother having hung himself after years of abuse at the hands of other students and indifference from school officials.

Alex, 12, suffers from physical abuse from his peers in Sioux City, IA, because of his social ineptitude and small stature. He's uncommunicative to his parents, who can't understand why this is happening to him and don't know what questions to ask.

Kelby is a 16-year-old lesbian. Her parents love and support her, as does her core group of friends. But both she and her parents are pariahs in rural Tuttle, OK. Her parents describe former friends refusing to even look at them on the street while Kelby tells us that even some of her teachers join in on anti-gay bullying. She's determined to stand her ground.

Ja'Meya, 14, of Yazoo County, MS, is a thin and shy girl who wants to join the military after graduation so she can help her family with expenses. Having been picked on ruthlessly on the bus ride to and from school, she one day brings a handgun and brandishes it at her tormentors. We meet her as she's facing multiple felony counts that could put her behind bars for the rest of her life.

Perhaps most wrenching is meeting the family of 11-year-old Ty Field, whose bullying-related suicide led his parents, Kirk and Laura Smalley, to start the anti-bullying crusade Stand For The Silent, bringing an anti-bullying message from their home in Perkins, OK, to the state capital and to the rest of the world.

Bully isn't an easy film to watch. As an adult who remembers enduring anti-gay bullying during my teen years, it's hard to see that (ahem) a few years later it's still going on and is too often viewed as "kids being kids" by people who are either indifferent or active participants.

Two scenes that were especially difficult to witness were when Tyler's mother shows the room where she found him and when Ty's parents try to express their grief while sitting in his bedroom.

Does the film have flaws? Yes. All the locations in the film are small, rural towns, and it could be far too easy for people in urban areas to tell themselves that bullying is a problem in "fly-over land" and not in our schools. I think administrators here could on that one.

But the big issue is the film's rating. The MPAA has given the movie an "R" rating due to some strong language. That rating practically guarantees that the film won't be shown to those who need to see it the most—teens. A young lady from Michigan has started an online petition asking the MPAA to reclassify the film as "PG-13."

Silicon Valley Representative Mike Honda crafted a letter that 20 members of Congress signed asking the MPAA to reconsider its rating, while celebrities like Ellen Degeneres, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have made public pleas.

I can remember days when I felt like doing what Tyler and Ty did, feeling it was perhaps the only way out. I was lucky that I had enough of a support system to keep me grounded and safe. If this film can start a dialog amongst children, parents, administrators and teachers—if it even keeps one kid from killing themself—then it deserves a "PG-13." It deserves to be seen.

I've signed the online petition to get the movie's rating reclassified, along with more than 450,000 others. You can do so as well here.