STAND: Students Taking a New Direction

The nonfiction film Bully was released yesterday with much brouhaha about its R rating. I've been following the story for several months now and did a brief post a few weeks ago here. Most feel the R rating will keep the film from being used as a teaching tool in the schools — the very place it needs to be seen. The movie has a lot of swearing and was bumped up from the PG rating because of multiple uses of one particular curse word.

I'm just glad to see the bullying issue has recently been getting media attention. I read this morning about a group of High School students who have created a group, Students Taking a New Direction (STAND) in Minooka, Illinois, hoping to educate audiences with anti-bullying programs that focus on the various types of bullying and the impact it has. During the students presentation, the members act through skits involving different situations that often spark bullying (e.g., religion, sexual orientation, physical features), and at the end each member takes the microphone to give their own personal brushes with bullying.

Seeing students speaking out about bullying is a step in the right direction. As the Bully movie tagline suggests: All it takes is for 1 person to stand up. Be the difference.