Cyberbullying News | Research, Reviews, Summaries & Expert Interviews for Educators & Researchers

This week’s video feature is a ”visually stunning short film set in the rural wheat belt of Western Australia.”  The film provides a “candid insight into the life of Ronan … a 14 yr old boy who’s been bullied his whole life at school.”   The film won the “Best Short Film” award at the prestigious 2010 Sedona International Film Festival. Let’s check it out.

We want to preface this “review” by saying that we have only viewed the film’s preview, not the entire film which has not yet been shown on wide release in the USA.  You can view the preview for yourself here and check out the website here.  The ending of the film is not disclosed in the preview.  However, the preview seems to suggest that Ronan “escapes” by taking his own life.  Having not had an opportunity to see the film in its entirety, this may of course not be true. 

We are including the film in our Friday Feature because we feel it raises a number of important issues.  For example, the role of bystanders (“witnesses” [see Alison Trachtman-Hill's comments at the end of this blog]) who “watch and do nothing … while the rest turn a blind eye;” the idea that young people often feel isolated and alone with no-one “safe” to talk to about their issues (“in a world of solitude, no-one hears your cry”); and that sometimes the only power a target feels they have is to act upon their own extreme solution of how to make things better (“every now and then one of us escapes”).  Think about how many times in this story any one person or group of people could have done something differently and most likely have dramatically changed the outcome for the better. 

First, however, an important caveat: The topic of suicide is sensitive and its presentation should always be age appropriate.  Additionally, as Hinduja & Patchin note in their Cyberbullying Research Summary: Cyberbullying and Suicide, it is important to acknowledge that teenagers “who committed suicide after experiencing bullying or cyberbullying had other emotional and social issues going on in their lives … it is unlikely that experience with cyberbullying by itself leads to youth suicide.”  With that said, and as noted by Hinduja & Patchin, ”students in all grade levels must understand the serious consequences associated with peer aggression.  While suicide is an extreme response, proper discussion of its stark reality can vividly portray the extent of harm that peer harassment can exact.” 

Given that, used carefully, thoughtfully, and age-appropriately, this piece could be a vivid, effective ”teaching tool” to jump-start an on-going dialogue with young people about bullying and cyberbullying.  We like the fact that “The Story” of Ronan’s escape “presents arbitrary scenes rather than traditional storytelling which provokes audiences into discussion and interpretation of the scenes on a more personal level while reflecting on their own experiences.”  Handled wisely, Ronan’s Escape could be used to engage young people in thinking critically, collaborately, and constructively about how this could have ended more positively for Ronan (and the others), and what would need to change in order for that to happen.