{"id":2713,"date":"2014-05-21T01:25:27","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T01:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2014-05-21T01:30:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T01:30:47","slug":"bully-producer-cynthia-lowen-speaks-sts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2014\/05\/bully-producer-cynthia-lowen-speaks-sts\/","title":{"rendered":"“Bully” Producer Cynthia Lowen Speaks to STS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Andrew H. Walker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 17, 2009, 17-year-old Tyler Long took his own life. After having suffered years of vicious bullying at Murray County High School in Georgia, he could take no more. He changed into his favorite outfit, tied a leather belt around his neck, and hanged himself in his bedroom.<\/p>\n

As heartbreaking as Tyler\u2019s story is, it is not unique. A horrible epidemic of bullying has seeped into adolescent communities throughout the country, and no simple solution exists. Almost seven percent of American high school students have attempted suicide. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 160,000 kids skip school everyday out of fear for bullies.<\/p>\n

Many school administrators and teachers across the country have proven incapable of combating bullying. \u201cKids will be kids,\u201d they say, \u201cand pushing each other around is a normal part of growing up.\u201d But bashing a peer\u2019s head against the side of a school bus until he or she loses consciousness is not in the realm of acceptable teenage behavior.<\/p>\n

In response to the rising severity of bullying, Fieldston invited Bully co-producer Cynthia Lowen to come speak to the community, specifically to its STS leaders. Bully is an award-winning documentary featuring the stories of five adolescent bully victims throughout the country. STS leader Matt Gibson described the movie as \u201ca good example of the problems with the school system in regards to how they deal with bullying — it really surprised [him] how nonchalant many of the teachers were to the blatant bullying.\u201d Another leader, Sophie Bokor, said \u201cit was striking to see such physically violent bullying because [she had] never seen anything as graphic and intense at Fieldston.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Ms. Lowen emphasized to Fieldston students was that while her co-producer Lee Hirsch brought to the production his years of filmmaking, she had the experience and the vision of a writer (Ms. Lowen received an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and is a winner of several prominent poetry competitions). She also clearly feels a personal attachment to the world of bullying and the stresses of adolescent life. \u201cI was super shy, afraid of kids,\u201d she explained, \u201cJunior High was not where I felt comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowen and Hirsch filmed Bully over the course of the 2009-2010 school year. The project was prompted by two teenage suicides. \u201cEven though there had been tons of youth suicides previously,\u201d Ms. Lowen said, \u201cpeople had swept it under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Times film critic A. O. Scott helps us understand why this film was so well received. \u201cWhile the film focuses on the specific struggles of five families in four states,\u201d Mr. Scott writes, \u201cit is also about \u2013 and part of \u2013 the emergence of a movement.\u201d Bully gave a voice to an issue that had been formerly ignored, denied and defended against.<\/p>\n

Since Bully\u2019s debut, Lowen and Hirsch have launched \u201cThe Bully Project,\u201d which provides more information on the film, a companion book containing inspiring narratives, and various \u201ctoolkits\u201d that help kids, parents and teachers educate themselves about bullying.<\/p>\n

Whether it is conspicuous or not, in the cafeteria or over Facebook, bullying is an issue that demands the attention of every student, parent, and faculty member. At Fieldston, Ms. Lowen helped STS leaders incorporate the messages of her film into the Middle School Ethics curriculum and the spirit of our community. Ultimately, her presentation underlined the importance of Fieldston\u2019s commitment to work collectively to build a community based on respect and safety for everyone who walks through the school\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 17, 2009, 17-year-old Tyler Long took his own life. After having suffered years of vicious bullying at Murray County High School in Georgia, he could take no more. He changed into his favorite outfit, tied a leather belt around his neck, and hanged himself in his bedroom. As heartbreaking as Tyler\u2019s story is, it is not unique. A horrible epidemic of bullying has seeped into adolescent communities throughout the country, and no simple<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[90],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Cynthia+Lowen+Tribeca+Film+Festival+2011+Portrait+0mm3xxSVjfEl.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2719,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/2719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}