TalkEZY

Youth audition for Partnership's anti-bullying video

MONROE — Long considered a childhood rite of passage, bullying is starting to take on a more sinister look as more and more people try to put an end to a problem faced by youth across the country.

More than just the cartoon image of big kids stealing lunch money from smaller ones — and far more complex than a little name-calling — bullying can take a variety of forms, from violence in the schoolyard to emotional terrorism amongst cliques to virtual harassment on social networking sites.

Here in Walton County, where bullying is just as present as many other schools across the nation, some are trying to clamp down on the problem and put an end to it all.

Amy Hunnewell, youth development coordinator with The Partnership for Families, Children and Youth, is currently working on such a plan with designs for a video to show at schools demonstrating the cost of bullying on both the bully and the bullied.

Planned to be between 15-20 minutes, the video will show a variety of bullying situations and how to address such issues.

“This is really important,” Hunnewell said. “At one local middle school, one-third of the population said they’d been bullied.”

So Hunnewell and the Youth Advocacy Board, a local group of teenagers who work in the school on various issues, began planning the video to teach others about the issues at stake.

“It’s something we need to bring to their level,” Hunnewell said. “This is a youth-led, youth-driven video.”

With more than a dozen roles to fill in the planned video, Hunnewell and the YAB held auditions recently to find teens who could bring the production to life on screen.

Ally Rawls, 15, was one of the teens who auditioned in front of the camera.

“It’s fun,” Rawls said. “It’s going to inspire a lot of kids.”

She said bullying is a problem she’s seen firsthand and hopes the video can help educate students on the issue.

“It’s not only affecting kids at school,” Rawls said. “It can happen anywhere.”

Gina Ford, 15, also came out to audition. Together with Rawls, the two enacted a scene where they pushed friend Alex Edwards, 19, to the floor and took over a video game from him, laughing and taunting him along the way in their best mean girls impression.

Ford said she enjoyed auditioning and thinks it would be fun to film the video, saying it’s a great idea to spread the word on the bullying problem.

“I think it’s a great way for us to put it out there,” Ford said.

Hunnewell has high hopes for the video, planning not only to show it in the local schools but to eventually spread it past community borders and get it out nationally. By filming the video and putting it in venues where others can see it, she hopes to fight back against the bullying culture and help young people everywhere.

“It’s not just the bullies, the people being bullied or the schools that need to see this,” Hunnewell said. “The communities need to see this and begin to change.”

Source Website:  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/google/bully/~3/OGOW4KCWHxQ/url