Tyler Clementi Foundation Helps Teens Fight Cyberbullying With Film Festival

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — The Tyler Clementi Foundation encouraged 100 people to fight bullying with the most powerful weapon: Their voices.

The foundation, which Clementi's family created after he committed suicide after his Rutgers roommate filmed a romantic encourage between Clementi and another man. Clementi lived in Ridgewood.

The foundation partnered with 100 New York-area student filmmakers and they competed and screened their work as part of the national Teen Film Festival. The festival's theme was My Camera, My Voice.

The teens created filmed focused on the personal effects of cyberbullying, something that a recent poll the foundation conducted revealed happens quite often among children.

According to a poll the foundation helped conduct, 48 percent of teenagers have experienced cyber bullying and eight in 10 people know someone who has been the victim the cyberbullying. The poll solicited feedback from 1,000 New York-area parents and children.

Slightly more than 40 percent of teens surveyed described the comments their peers post online as being “mostly mean,” and that teens are targeted on electronic media mainly for being socially awkward, their choice of clothes, and their sexual orientation.

“These stats speak to the staggering problem of cyberbullying,” Jane Clementi, Tyler’s mother, previously said. “It’s outrageous and unacceptable to allow this to continue. Aggressive behaviors in the electronic world can cause great pain and destruction to one’s spirit.”