Bullying Comes Front and Center

We all know them. Or maybe we were among their ranks when we were young.

The outcasts. The weirdos. The unpopular, picked on kids who got tormented by older, stronger, meaner children because they were different. Taller. Thinner. Fatter. Misshapen. Shorter. With straight hair, curly hair, clear complexions, mottled skin, bad teeth, good teeth, braces. Weaker.

The ones who didn't fit in. Who were bullied. Who were alone. Day in and day out. For years. Their school days were dreadful, humiliating, filled with terror and shame. While grown-ups, teachers and parents stood by, ignorant in some cases, unresponsive in others.

These days, there's less an attitude of "kids will be kids" in many schools and school districts. In other communities, like Murray County, Georgia, where a bullied 17-year-old committed suicide, there's both denial and determination about dealing with bullying.

Now, filmmaker Lee Hirsch has produced a documentary about bullying, called, simply "Bully," with an absurd "R" rating for baffling reasons. In it, he follows five families around the country, including one from Georgia, as they deal with bullying.

It's a movie that should be senn by school children everywhere, according to New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott, who wrote:

At times I found myself craving more analysis, a more explicit discussion of how the problem of bullying is connected to the broader issues of homophobia, education and violence in American life. But those issues are embedded in every story the film has to tell. Its primary intent is to stir feelings rather than to construct theories or make arguments, and its primary audience is not middle-aged intellectuals but middle-school students caught in the middle of the crisis it so powerfully illuminates.

The good news is that families are banding together to address a horrible problem. Rex Reed's review in the New York Observer says:

The strong odor of a need for change is in the air. The crisis of bullying must end before more children surrender to the agony of despair. Reversing the irresponsible “R” rating of this movie is a good place to start. Meryl Streep, the American Federation of Teachers, Johnny Depp, Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper, Tommy Hilfiger, Justin Bieber, 20 members of Congress and the presidents of theater chains are just a few of the early supporters of Bully. “It Starts With One” is the motto and the rallying cry of this growing movement, and Lee Hirsch is certainly one who is making a difference. I endorse him and his brave, powerful movie and urge you to see it for yourself. You might leave Bully with rage, but you will not leave Bully with indifference.

Were you bullied as a child? Or has your child or someone you know been bullied? What did you do? Does your child's school take steps to address bullying?