The Bully Project

To share that I was moved by the documentary "Bully" would be a huge understatement. I believe I cried a good hour of the 90 minute documentary because I have kids. That is what tore me up. This incredible documentary shared the stories of five children and their families and showed intimately the impact of severe bullying. I'm not talking about someone who occasionally hears a snide remark, but instead, these five kids endured death threats and self esteem blows that would make your knees cave in. The courage these kids had to get up and go back to school each day was ridiculously amazing.

Tragically, two of the kids featured took their own lives. That was a big message of this film, as some of the school officials who were on camera have that old attitude of "kids will be kids" and "boys will be boys", which is utter nonsense. What a defeat to the families, and especially to the kids to know that the school condones the behavior by lack of action. When kids are being threatened on a daily basis with physical and verbal assaults that would cause an adult to immediately dial 911 and yet, kids are told to "suck it up", where can they put all of that? The stress that these five kids endured day in and day out made my heart hurt and made the tears flow non stop. It was so clear to see it on film that the kids being bullied were being told to solve it themselves and that is so ludicrous when their basic safety was being threatened hourly. It was just too much for an eleven year old or fourteen year old to solve on their own. An adult would struggle if asked to solve these situations on their own....

I highly recommend this documentary because several of the families came together and heroically are speaking out to "Stand for the Silent" and to share with kids that standing up for a fellow human being who is being bullied can make it stop. The dad who had lost his son told these kids, (paraphrased): If you dare to stand up, then one more kid will stand with you and two become four and four can become an army against bullying.

Amen to that!

http://www.thebullyproject.com/about_film