By Geno McGahee
Bullying is a rampant problem in every school and it is very rarely dealt with appropriately. There is criticism that the bullies are never punished correctly and the bullying is often not reported by those being pushed around due to fear of worse harassment. The constant harassment and abuse can lead to some very horrible things like school shootings and suicide. BULLY brings forth the problem and does it effectively.
Lee Hirsh wrote and directed this documentary, which covers children that are bullied and families that are dealing with a suicide that was the result of bullying. Locally, Phoebe Prince’s suicide made national news and brought a new focus to the problem of bullying. Anyone that has been through the public school system has dealt with it and should be sensitive to it. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
One child featured in this is named “Alex.” Alex is a junior high school student that is being bullied without mercy. His father’s reaction is to tell his son to basically man up. His mother grills Alex at the table and asks him if he likes being hit and abused. Initially they are not handling it well at all. They eventually go to the assistant principle when the filmmakers show the footage to the school and parents of Alex being abused.
The assistant principal that hasn’t missed many meals has no clue how to deal with bullying. She tells the parents that she cannot fix the problem on the bus where Alex is being beaten. She makes a bullied student shake hands with his bully and then insists that he is just as bad as the bully for not being willing to shake his hand at first.
A young lesbian in a small town also feels the wrath of the bullies, but it doesn’t end there. She deals with homophobic adults and teachers that just spout off about their hatred of homosexuals, and they do it in class. On top of the teen being the subject of hatred, her parents are also subjected to idiocy from the townspeople for having a gay daughter.
Rallies take place to push the anti-bully agenda and many great things are said and hopefully it will do some good to lessen the amount of children that go through terrible abuse through the school system. It’s not promising, but this film brings attention to the subject and does it very well.
BULLY is a film that every parent and child should see. This should be an eye-opener for those children that bully and those children that are bullied. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 8/10