Documentary: BULLY: Whatever Happened to It Takes a Village to Raise a Child?

I'm a little late. I had been meaning to watch the documentary BULLY (2011) for a while. I see many students on Elon's campus wearing the button that says BULLY with a red slash going through it. Well, I sat down this evening to watch it on Netflix and it tore my heart apart. If you have seen it, you know what I mean or if you know someone who has been bullied severely or even worse has committed suicide for being bullied, then you know what I mean. What made me angry was the adults in the children's lives who were all saying that "They cannot take responsibility for the children's actions." School Superintendents, school boards, principals and even police were saying things like, "We cannot change the actions of a student. We have lots of students to supervise and if the parents do not enforce it, we cannot do anything." And what gets me is that these adults who work in CHILDCARE were saying these things after some young individuals were bullied so much to the point that they committed suicide. I'm sure they would not be saying this if it were their child who was the victim. I think what our problem is in the 21st century, is that many of us have become numb/desensitized to and almost dare I say accepting of pain and meanness. We have become consumed with the ideas of capitalism, and each man for himself! So adults convincing themselves "Oh this is just a phase. They'll grow out of it," is a dangerous state of mind to fall victim to.

The documentary traces the journeys of I believe five families in dealing with the harassment of their children in school, but the children and their parents alike feel helpless because the people in upper administration will not take any ownership or responsibility in it. What the hell is happening to our world? What ever happened to "It takes a village to raise a child?" Everyone is so afraid to take responsibility for someone else's child, and everyone wants to be "politically correct," but bullying is a bigger problem then I thought. There are lots of campaigns that parents of victims of bullying have created to fight bullying, however, they can campaign all day till they're blue in the face, but that won't make a significant change until administration puts their foot down.

It is heart breaking to know that a young, innocent child who has not yet experienced all the joys and even true sorrows that life has to offer, feels that they MUST end it all because they feel so much pain from bullies...their peers who slap them, physically abuse them, call them names all while adults stand on the sidelines and say "Oh well." That makes me angry! Adults should know better. If the adults can't teach the future generations the right way...WE ARE DOOMED!--And that is an understatement.

Honestly, I remember being bullied as a kid for my weight, the way I dressed, etc. but I had a mother and people to tell me that they loved me and that I was beautiful! My mother would tell me to "defend myself," and sure enough when I did so, people did not tease me anymore the way they once did. Many people go through the phase [of being bullied], some worse than others, but I believe that in order for a child to successfully pull their way out of it, without feeling like they must take their own life, they need to feel 1)support from their parents and 2) support from their teachers and principals.

Two scenarios in the documentary stuck out to me. One, two parents of a boy who committed suicide called a town meeting and a few students testified. A poor boy got up with tears running down his face saying, "I can't believe _____ had to do this just for people to notice! Just for people to care. I can't believe it had to go this far!" I thought, "Wow, this kid has more sense then the adults." Two, the last family the documentary followed was a black family in Mississippi. The victim of bullying was a young, black girl who was an honor student who played basketball. She was constantly teased so bad at school that she took her mother's gun and brought it to school and took it out on the bus. She did not shoot anyone, but of course she was taken to a juvenile detention center. And here goes the raggedy sheriff taking about, "This young lady has 22 counts of assault plus another 22 counts...she has over 40 counts of misdemeanor charges which if she was old enough could land her YEARS in jail. I don't care how bad the bullying gets, to me there is no excuse for bringing a gun to school."

If you are reading this you may be saying to yourself "Oh, he's right,"...but let me ask you this, have you truly been bullied to the point that you felt like a piece of dirt? Have you ever been bullied everyday of your life in school to the point that you felt like you wanted to give up? If the answer is no, then you would not understand why she brought the gun to school. She didn't fire the gun or shoot anyone, she said she was tired of them picking on her and she wanted to scare them. Yet when that crazy lunatic boy shot up the movie theater...American news outlets want to talk about how smart he was...that he attended an Ivy league and that he had mental problems. Creating nothing but a bunch of excuses for him...but here's a 14 years old black girl...honor student, who was sick and tired, but she has 40 plus counts of misdemeanors and "Americans" want to THROUGH HER IN JAIL! at even Also a lesbian student was dealing with bullying and it got so bad that even the child's parents' friends disassociated with them. When it comes to certain issues, this country makes me sick. We have too many bystanders and onlookers in certain situations who fail to speak up when they know something is wrong with the situation. You may not agree with someone's viewpoint but bullying is never "okay" or acceptable or appropriate. And we'er always busy judging someone...WHY? No one is perfect and EVERYONE had dirty laundry, it's just that everyone's is not as visible as others' but that doesn't make us better than anyone else.

In college it's much more rare to see open "bullying" then in elementary and jr high school, but if I see it I WILL SPEAK UP! It would kill me inside to know that I could've done something but didn't. Also, I can't change the world alone, but I will make a video to encourage people who have been bullied. And as always I start with informing people with my blog, then I will apply it to my personal life, and then take it to the MIGHY TUBE...YOUTUBE THAT IS! Any thoughts? Comments? Concerns? If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you have seen it what did you like? Dislike?