Bully

For the family activity, I wanted to find a movie we could watch. I went through pay-per-view and found 5 worthy movies. We voted on the movies and Bully won.

The Bully Project

After I made popcorn, we sat down to watch the movie. From the opening, where a couple talk about their oldest child, and we find out that he committed suicide when he was 17 because he had been bullied terribly at school, we were enthralled.

It was a very difficult movie to watch. My heart broke for the children. My heart broke for the families. I was also frustrated at some of the administrators that were in the movie. I yelled out loud at them. It was very frustrating to watch such ineptness when children in their care were being harmed both emotionally and physically.

Our children made comments at times that the behavior in the movie would not be tolerated in Gretna. That makes me very happy living in the town that we do. There are openly gay students in the high school. No one shuns them. No one bullies them. There are mean kids, but none that bully. I also think that the middle school I teach at is pretty much free from bullies. There might be a few incidents, but nothing to the extent that the kids in this movie had to deal with especially Alex, who was a 13 year old boy in Sioux City, Iowa.

I am going to look more into the bully project.

Reviews:
Glen and I both thought it was very difficult to watch as parents. He also disliked the principal at the middle school who seemed inept.
Dakota said "it destroyed his faith in human kind".
Alexsei said it was very sad.
Savana liked it a great deal.
Alaric also said it was very sad.

I think this is an excellent movie to watch with your family. It opened up some excellent discussions with our children. I think one of the saddest things in the movie is that some of the parents had no idea what was going on at school because their children didn't tell them. I want my children to always be able to talk to us about anything.