The recent buzz in the media is about the new movie BULLY. After failing to lower its rating from R to PG-13 the film is being released without a rating.
I have a weak stomach when it comes to watching kid-on-kid cruelty so I doubt I could make it through the film even if I wanted to see it, but BULLY is intensifying the ongoing national conversation on bullying and cyberbullying.
BULLY follows the lives of 5 kids throughout the 2009-2010 school year: 12-year old Alex, 16-year-old Kelby, 14-year-old Ja'meya, 17-year-old Tyler Long, and 11-year-old Ty Smalley. Both Tyler and Ty had committed suicide, so their stories are told by their parents.
It's no secret that bullies aren't kind and certainly don't censor their language, so BULLY received an R rating for language. BULLY was partially intended to help bullied kids know that they aren't alone and for kids who bully others to see the real effects of their actions, so there was naturally a bit of an uproar about the R rating because for a lot of bullies and bullied kids, 17 is too late.
A petition with 500,000 signatures to lower the rating to PG-13 was unsuccessful, so the filmmaker is releasing the movie without a rating.
Will you be seeing the movie BULLY, with or without your children? Do you think there might be value in having them watch a documentary like this? 
