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Lines of Love is taking a stand against bullying, one of the leading precursors to depression and suicide. We created a video for our school’s upcoming week-long campaign against bullying, and we will be putting our efforts and energy into this fight for the next two months. Our goal is clear: to bring both awareness and education to the communities as well as the school systems across the country that bullying has to be taken seriously and addressed aggressively.
To all: You have the courage and the right to REJECT the hatred, the abuse, the pain. Stand up against bullying, and know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Olivia was a 19-year-old teen who loved life, but struggled with mental illness. She sent out numerous cries for help, nearly all online (including the video below), but nobody took her seriously or tried to help her. For whatever reason, she hid these feelings from her parents. Now, they are uncovering an online world that did nothing to stop her suicide — in fact, some even encouraged her. Olivia points the finger at bullying as her number one reason for suicide.
You can read the full story of Olivia’s tragedy here.
Olivia’s death, unfortunately, is not some isolated case. Thousands and thousands of teens and adults (and, tragically, pre-teens as well) are cyberbullied, teased in school and at work, and find they have no way out. They believe there is no one left who will take the time to understand their feelings and their illness.
You can help by sharing Olivia’s story. You can help by making sure you do not bully others. You can help by standing up against bullies and supporting the victims.
You can help by talking to your own children, talking to your friend’s children.
Listening.
Loving.
Supporting.
Be a line of love to these kids and these adults. Friends, we have to do more to pull together and stop this tragic, tragic ending from happening over and over again.
Good news today as the movie rating industry struck a deal with movie director Lee Hirsch to lower the rating to PG-13, thus allowing teens — the primary target audience — to see this movie, which releases nationwide on April 13.
Here is the article in its entirety, as published on abcnews.go.com:
ABC News’ Lauren Effron and Jenna Millman report:
The producers of “Bully,” a documentary on the bullying crisis in U.S. schools, claimed what they called a “huge victory” today when the Motion Picture Association of America agreed to lower the film’s rating from R to the less-restrictive PG-13, making it easier for younger audiences to see it.
“Bully” director Lee Hirsch successfully negotiated with the MPAA to keep in a key scene that showed 15-year-old Alex Libby getting viciously harassed on a school bus provided Hirsch remove three ”F-word” references.
“I am excited that kids my age can easily go see the movie now that we have a PG-13 rating,” Libby told “Nightline” in an exclusive interview today. “I hope everyone who’s ever been bullied watches this and knows they’re not alone, and that they can stand up for themselves like I do now.”
The MPAA originally ruled to have “Bully,” a movie about five American students who were horrendously bullied at school, including two students whose tormenting ended in their suicides, rated R, citing the bus scene with Libby and the ”F-word” references as justification for the rating.
The original ruling prompted the aggressive campaign by the Weinstein Co., which is releasing “Bully,” to lower the R rating to PG-13. A petition on the website Change.org demanding that the MPAA remove the R rating received more than 500,000 signatures. Many signers believed it was important that those under the age of 17, who are barred from viewing R-rated movies without an accompanying adult, see “Bully” and discuss its message. A number of prominent TV and film personalities, including Anderson Cooper, Meryl Streep, Ellen DeGeneres and Johnny Depp, threw their support behind the campaign to remove the film’s R rating.
Faced with enormous public pressure, the MPAA declared the film “Unrated” last week before changing it to “PG 13″.
“Bully” opened in New York and Los Angeles on March 30 to a strong $23,000 per screen average box-office returns, Reuters reported. The new PG-13 rating comes just in time, as the film is slated for wide release on April 13.
ABC News had first followed director Lee Hirsch while he was still making “Bully” in 2010, and spent time with the Long family a year after their son Tyler killed himself. Tina and David Long helped lead the charge against bullying, and the film recounts their efforts.
In a recent interview with “Nightline,” the Longs said the work they did to combat bullying helped them deal with the pain of losing their son.
“I don’t think the pain will ever go away, but it gives you … hope,” David Long said.
ABC 2 News was at Centennial today, March 16, covering the end of a week-long campaign to abolish bullying in our community.
Here’s the first clip that was aired.
And here’s the second, extended clip that aired later in the evening. This clip features one of Lines’ leaders, Kirsten, and the opening of the Lines of Love Message to Bullies…
This is the latest trailer for the upcoming movie, BULLY.
You have the power to BE THE DIFFERENCE. Go out and find that child who is being bullied and stand up for him or her. Let them know they are not alone.
Donna Curley and Sara Tagget met with Congressman John Sarbanes to seek out support in the effort to promote suicide prevention.
From the article: “Another piece of legislation the AFSP advocates are pushing is the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would create requirements for all schools to develop bullying and harassment policies, prevention strategies and reporting methods. The legislation has sponsors in both the House and the Senate; Sarbanes is a co-sponsor of the House bill.”
Lines of Love is committed to helping in any way possible to support the Safe Schools Improvement Act. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
Lines of love has a new logo!
As we continue to work hard at the community level (and beyond) to promote awareness and educate others about depression, suicide prevention, and the precursors to both (our anti-bullying campaign is our latest initiative), we ask you to join us in sharing hope and support to those in need.
The Baltimore Sun recently published a sound article on the Strouse family, who has raised nearly $1 million to educate and promote awareness about mental illness since they lost their daughter to suicide in September, 2001. You can read the complete article HERE.
In the July 2011 issue of Cosmo, there is an article called “gorgeous, successful … and wanting to die.”
Directly from Kara Tagget’s mom, Sara: The article is about young women and suicide, and among the young women who have died by suicide is Kara. Check it out, pgs 156-159. We are hoping by sharing her story other young women who are struggling will get help – remember, speaking up is a sign of strength not of weakness!
Thank you Cosmo for printing an article on “suicide”; Cosmo’s efforts can only help to make “suicide” a less taboo subject!
As soon as the article goes online (assuming that it does), we’ll post it here on our site.
If you know of other articles that are running in local and national publications and raising awareness about depression, anxiety, and suicide, please let us know so that we can improve our newsfeed here at Lines of Love.
