Editor’s blog: Why the film “Bully” should be rated PG
Every day in third grade, a boy in class would glare at me whenever the teacher wasn’t looking. He’d punching one fist into the palm of his other hand. My stomach would clench up.
He was warning me about the playground abuse that was sure to follow. He was the ringleader, but he got a group of boys to push me down and kick at me every day. It got bad enough that my mom had to start picking me up because I couldn’t safely get to the bus.
Once she and my dad intervened with the bully’s parents, it stopped – but it seemed to go on forever, pretty much erasing anything that was good about third grade.
I also stood on the sidelines – or even actively participated in – the bullying of other kids in elementary school. I remember chasing one boy, who was very tall and overweight, all over the playground, pushing him down and stuffing dried leaves in his pants until tears streamed down his reddened face. We chased another girl and tortured her so much, she ran – literally – all the way home.
These memories are painful, but they illustrate an important point. Almost all of us have been bullied – and have