bully – the movie

All done Frnny. All the way from England. Lets hope we can stop this here

Sadly I think that the kids who would need to see this film, are the kids that wont, even if the rating is changed. Mainly because they do not see what they do as bullying. My eldest son was bullied throughout his final year of middle school because he has Crohn’s Disease. This ended with the bully trying to stab my son in his neck. He did draw blood but luckily my son wasn’t badly injured. I spoke to the head master at the school and he assured me that the bully would be dealt with. However, as there was a football match that afternoon and the bully was on the team, his dealing with it involved a talking to and that is it. This was a child of 11 years old. After that my son changed schools and is a very happy and settled 15 yr old.
The problem I have is while bullying is a huge problem, and it is heartbreaking, you have the do-gooders that say that the kids only bully because they are bullied themselves, or abused, or because both parents work, or don’t have money, or my personal favourite, they are bored, there is nothing for teens to do. Do you know what, I don’t give a stuff about the kids that choose to behave like this, I care about my kids and the others that go to school to learn. Every child should feel safe in school and if there is a “damaged” child that is making that impossible then that child should be removed from school until their “issues” are dealt with. Rant over!

Hey Jen, I agree with what your saying in this blog, as someone who has a mild learning disablity i do know how it feels to be bullied. Going through primary school was the hardest only because when I tried to be friendly to the other kids they just basically told me to get lost, which ended up me having to play with kids that were in grade 1-2 instead of the grade i was in which was 3-4. Then going though High school, I had teachers who gave me a hard time and the other kids also, they realised that I was different only because I had to have a teacher’s aid come into the classroom to help me with my schoolwork. On many occasions going though grade 11-12, my hospitality teacher gave me shit,she must not of liked me from the word go but on this one day that i remember very well, I was sitting in class and had the need to go to the bathroom and before you can leave the classroom you had to ask the teacher’s permission, well i raised my hand and all she did was look the other way, i sat there and nearly pissed myself, my hand was raised for nearly 30 mins. When the bell rang i just got up and ran! But still, can’t believe a teacher of all things would do that to a student! Many people say to me “why didn’t you just get up and go”, I said ” well i would have but she probably would have given me detention or something knowing her” . And plus the other kids called me a retard! Which i know i’m not, but still it’s not very nice! Well that’s my rant over! x

Signed the petition as I’m sitting here in tears. My little brother and I used to have to travel 1.5hr each way on the school bus when I was 12 and he was 9, and we both used to get bullied by the kids on there. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because we were brought up to be nice and have manners and we tried to make friends with them, therefore making us easy targets to kids who didn’t want to be nice. Maybe it’s because we were the new kids on the bus in what was an already established and non-welcoming group of the exclusive “bus travelers from far away”. Either way, it was inexcusable and uncalled for, but at the time.. when you’re traveling to a new area and the only person you know is your little brother who is just as scared as you, you don’t know what else to do besides cop the name calling, hair pulling, bag throwing, pushing down stairs, kicking, hitting, being made to sit down the front of the bus because “only the people we like can sit up here with us”. One girl my age tried to sit with me and make friends with me, but then she herself copped grief for that and she retreated. She didn’t bully me, but she still sat with the bullies. I didn’t really realise how inexcusable this all was until I was 17 and finally felt able to stand up to the main ringleader (with the support of my wonderful friends), who was a girl my age. She laughed it off. That’s what hurt the most. That she wouldn’t acknowledge the harm she had done, words that have stuck with me even now at age almost 24. My brother can’t even talk about those days of catching the bus, he’s now nearly 21. It’s not even the physical harm that hurt the most, it’s the words they would say to us when we were just two normal Aussie kids catching the bus to school, with no idea what we had done wrong to deserve this. I would even make sure I went to school when I was really sick, just so my little brother wouldn’t have to travel on that bus by himself, because I was terrified what they would do to him if I wasn’t there to protect him. Bullying makes me feel so ill and upset and I know that it is never going to be completely gone, but if this movie makes even a few bullies stop and change their ways, then it will have been a success.