thedailywhat: Bully of the Day: The MPAA today...

Bully of the Day: The MPAA today rejected the Weinstein Company’s request to reduce the rating of their bullying documentary from an R to a PG-13.

The rating, given for language, was reportedly upheld by a single vote.

Harvey Weinstein had hoped Bully could be used as an educational tool for teachers looking to augment existing anti-bullying lesson plans. However, the ruling may restrict the showing of the film in certain schools, as it prohibits viewing by children under 17 years of age without a parent or adult guardian present.

As a result, Weinstein Co. released a statement saying it “is considering a leave of absence from the MPAA for the foreseeable future.”

The MPAA followed up with their own statement, saying that while they agree that Bully “can serve as a vehicle” for discussions about bullying, the association “has the responsibility…to acknowledge and represent the strong feedback from parents throughout the country who want to be informed about content in movies, including language.”

It remains unclear if Weinstein intends to follow through with his threat, but, as Deadline points out, due to “longstanding though nonbinding agreement between exhibitors and the MPAA,” unrated films have a much tougher time getting shown in theaters than R-rated films.

[deadline.]

I was bullied throughout my school years, and I have to say: Teachers who say that “boys will be boys” or that “They didn’t mean anything by it,” or that, “I’ve never seen anything / Your child never spoke up about it before to me,” are LYING.

It happened to me. To the point where I was pulled into an empty classroom with my homeroom teacher and the principal and told I should, “Let it go.” I was told that maybe if I stopped hanging around my best friend and instead started hanging out with the popular girls, maybe my problems would stop.

What kind of BULLSHIT is that to tell a child who is being bullied?!?! I went home and cried my eyes out! I just had my teacher and the principal tell me it was my fault that I was being picked on.

Anyone who denies that bullying happens is totally out of their mind, OR they were the bully back when they were in school.

As sad as this is, now that I’ve worked in the school system, I’ve seen how much school politics play into it. Don’t cause a fuss. Don’t talk out about it. Just stay quiet and let the students work it out for themselves. That plan? Not so great. That’s when either kids turn to hurting themselves OR they bring a gun to school.

And then we really blame the ones who are being bullied: because they did something to themselves or worse, they hurt other people: popular people! Sad that no one cared about them when they were getting the shit beat out of them. Now a popular kid is hurt though,and the entire district is up in arms!

We had a kid in my school district. He was a freshman when I was a senior. He kept telling teachers about getting bullied, on the bus and in school. They didn’t do anything. His parents called in and met with the teachers. They said they didn’t see anything, couldn’t do anything.

You know what happened? He was sodomized with a pencil on the school bus.

It took getting THAT HORRIFIC ACT ON CAMERA to put an end to it. The kids who did it to him? What was their punishment? They were suspended for three days. And then they were back in class with him. BACK ON THE SCHOOL BUS WITH HIM. And they BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM as soon as they got a chance. This time, it was off the bus. There wasn’t anyone to help (not that any of the other students on the bus had helped when he was sodomized). He wound up in the hospital, and then dropped out of our school district.

What is wrong with our nation that we turn a blind eye to this?

((Sorry for the rant. This is a really big issue for me. It kills me to see this happening.))