Empowering Kids to Stand Up to Bullying

Too many kids are shutting down or checking out through social withdrawal or suicide because of bullying. It's time to empower kids to help stop it when they see it or experience it. Through the creation of short videos which students will write, shoot, and edit, they will help to make a difference.

My students are seniors in high school who have successfully navigated the often difficult years in elementary, middle, and high school. They have seen devastating bullying first-hand, many of them victims who have overcome the trauma, siblings who have offered a shoulder to cry on, or friends who have listened to tearful pleas for help. They attend a rural public school in a conservative area of South Carolina where the student population is split between children of poverty and children of affluence. This gap between haves and have-nots creates far too many situations of bullies and victims, and my students feel compelled to do something about it. These high achieving students are fully capable of creating amazing results, and I am confident they can in fact do what they say they can - write, film, edit, and produce short video clips for schools in our district to show on their in-school-TV programs that will empower kids to stop bullying where they see or experience it.

My Project: I am requesting four Flip Video cameras for groups of six students each to work as a team to create the videos. As a team, the students will decide the specific type of bullying they will address (weight, ethnicity, sexual preference, poverty, etc.) and will write a script that shows an example of a student being bullied and the results that can occur. They will then shoot the same scene with more positive outcomes, whether it is about a student watching the bullying and stepping in or a bullying victim standing up for him or herself. Positive messages from students will fill the screen, encouraging those who experience bullying to know they are not alone. My students and I are devastated by recent suicides, and we want to do something to stop it, even if all we can do is in our small corner of the world.

We are losing kids because they have lost hope and feel that the world would be better off without them. This is not because of anything they have done, but because somebody else has decided to target them with devastating results. My students and I want to do something, and this small project is our first step towards what we hope will be a bigger project later. One step at a time to save a kid - will you please join us in fighting this heinous and horrifying trend among our youth?