The Quashnet Filmmaker's Club is a program that I started at my son's elementary school; teaching 5th and 6th graders how to make movies with a hand-held camera. The first two projects would be ones that I wrote and would direct as full production experiences for the club members in writing and directing their own movies. To that end, I decided to jump on the anti-bullying public service announcement band wagon, but with a twist. The name of the campaign became "Bullying, It's Not A Good Idea". After many years of school children torturing and abusing those who they perceived as weaker than they are, school systems began to address the issue of bullying, and of course went overboard. Between identifying the 20+ types of bullying that exist, along with zero tolerance policies put in place, we have created yet another avenue of victim development by telling kids, 'if you're bullied or see somebody being bullied, tell an adult and get help."
Yes, I agree that involving the voices of authority is an excellent way to stop bullying. However, what I wanted to explore was the down side of bullying from the standpoint of it backfiring on the bully. I remember that there was a kid in my school that everybody was afraid of and he eventually set his sights on me as some one to pick on, mainly because I was quiet and wore glasses. He decided one day that he was going to fight me after school. When he found me, along with his audience, he made a big production about how he was going to kick my ass. As I was taking off my glasses, he sucker punched me in the jaw and I don't remember much after that except for a security guard pulling me off of him and his mother screaming and crying, demanding to press charges against me until all of the kids verified that he started the fight and I was defending myself. I, meanwhile, had succeeded in applying several bruises, knocked out a couple of his teeth, and cause pain to his stomach knee and back. I didn't see much of him after that as his mother decided to send him to parochial school.
The resulting PSAs are below, "Billy The Bully" and "Julie & Sara"
Enjoy!
And remember... Bullying, It's Not A Good Idea!!!
Yes, I agree that involving the voices of authority is an excellent way to stop bullying. However, what I wanted to explore was the down side of bullying from the standpoint of it backfiring on the bully. I remember that there was a kid in my school that everybody was afraid of and he eventually set his sights on me as some one to pick on, mainly because I was quiet and wore glasses. He decided one day that he was going to fight me after school. When he found me, along with his audience, he made a big production about how he was going to kick my ass. As I was taking off my glasses, he sucker punched me in the jaw and I don't remember much after that except for a security guard pulling me off of him and his mother screaming and crying, demanding to press charges against me until all of the kids verified that he started the fight and I was defending myself. I, meanwhile, had succeeded in applying several bruises, knocked out a couple of his teeth, and cause pain to his stomach knee and back. I didn't see much of him after that as his mother decided to send him to parochial school.
The resulting PSAs are below, "Billy The Bully" and "Julie & Sara"
Enjoy!
And remember... Bullying, It's Not A Good Idea!!!