PORTLAND, Maine — A documentary film about the suicide of a bullied teenage girl will be screened on Friday as part of a two-day event against bullying.
“Rats and Bullies” tells the story of 14-year-old Dawn-Marie Wesley, a British Columbia girl who hanged herself in 2000 after being bullied by three girls at her school. Wesley named the three girls in a suicide note, which later led to a landmark court case where the teens were made to stand trial for bullying.
The case was the first of its kind in North America and drew international media attention.
The film, which recently won an impact award at the United Nations Global Wake Up Film Festival, will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Friday, at Big Moose Harley-Davidson on Riverside Street. Director Cassidy McMillan will host a question-and-answer session after the screening.
Day two of the event, called Take a Stand Against Bullying, begins at 8:30 a.m. at Big Moose Harley-Davidson, and will include Portland Mayor Michael Brennan, who plans to declare May 12 as Bullying Awareness Day.
“Bullying is not a rite of passage or an experience that makes us stronger,” Brennan said in a statement. “It’s cruel and has serious consequences not just for the health and well-being of the child involved but for friends, schools and our community as a whole. If there is one lesson we can all take away from this documentary, it’s that you can’t be a bystander. More than half of all bullying stops when a peer intervenes and as adults we have a moral responsibility to teach our kids how to speak up and create a culture where bullying is no longer acceptable.”
Also scheduled to speak are Adrienne Bennett, Gov. Paul LePage’s press secretary, and Jennifer Lynch, anchor of WGME’s “Good Day Maine” program, among others.
The event will fundraise for two Portland suicide prevention and anti-bullying groups.
Nearly 48 percent of Maine middle school students and 23 percent of high schoolers in Maine report being bullied on school property, according to the 2009 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey. About 40 percent of middle schoolers and 18 percent of high school students in the state were bullied away from school.
Maine lawmakers in March passed a bill, pending approval from a legislative budgetary committee, that would strengthen Maine’s anti-bullying efforts. LD 1237 provides educators and administrators with a clear definition of bullying, an explicit prohibition against bullying behavior, a range of alternative discipline strategies for schools, prevention policies and training for teachers.
Instead of trying to stop the natural order of things why not teach people SELF WORTH. O wait are we even allowed to teach kids that? Bullies are nature. There will always be one no matter where you go. The difference is those with self worth know there only power is what you give them. Names are simple words and if a word can drive you to the lengths these kids are going to to “escape” them we have much bigger problems then the bully…
teaching self worth is fine, so is teaching our young not to bully. Bullying is abusive, an humans tend to believe, more hurtful things said to them, more quick then the good.
But the parents of bullies don’t want to feel bad about being such crappy parents….
“The natural order of things” ?
Big fail of an argument right there.
he’s a LePagenic that says it all
I’m fairly certain, he means “statisical probability of a bully at any given school based on population”. But that’s a bit long-winded and horrible sounding. “Natural order” to me, as it was used in his sentence, especially if you read the rest of what he wrote.
In particular, “There will always be one no matter where you go.” That says “realist” all over it.
Instead of trying to tear people down, why not try and understand them?
As I reread your post, it seem to me what you are saying, that bullying is ok. Bullies pick of weakness, they find it and they do it in gangs. It’s done for power, but it truly cowardice.
Nonsense.
Maine_gun_guy seems to be a realist. Instead of trying to “fix” the bullying, why not try to change how people think? Teaching kids self-worth is a good start.
My son was bullied by a child of a parent who is into dealing/using drugs, and a constant string of horrible boyfriends. That kid’s life must be hell, and he acts out by taking his frustrations out on other people like my son.
I don’t blame the kid entirely, he isn’t being taught to love and respect people. He is being taught by his “mother” that it is okay to do what you want, and that you can use and abuse other people just to get what you want. What kind of environment is that for a kid?
Just the tip of the iceberg…
How is that, different then what I said? Look I’m very heavy, I also have 3 kidneys , and was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom any times I needed to. This made me a target, it wasn’t the poor kids that picked on me, it was the kids that came from supposed better families. I don’t disagree that being picked is natural, even the bullied, bully at times. What I’m talking about is abuse, gangs of kids picking on other that they feel are not as good as they are. we need to teach people we are all as good as the next, but we also need to teach it not ok to bully.
Hurt People Hurt People.
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