Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.
Teenagers and others – including some members of Congress – are
petitioning to have the rating lowered from R on the movie
“Bully,” a documentary that tells the stories of five young
people subjected to harsh treatment by their peers. Do they have
a case? Are movie ratings important? Should the MPAA reevaluate
the movie’s rating? Does a film like this have the potential to
help more people talk about bullying and bring about change? On
the Motherlode blog, KJ Dell’Antonia describes two new
documentaries about bullying, the Cartoon Network movie “Speak
Up” and “Bully.” (After the MPAA gave it an R rating, Katy
Butler, a Michigan high school student, started a petition to
lower the rating given to “Bully.) Ms. Dell’Antonia writes:
“Bully,” the documentary, no matter how it’s ultimately rated,
is far more raw. It follows three victims of bullying, and two
families of children (Tyler Long, 17, and Ty Smalley, 11) who
committed suicide after abuse at th