Partnering to prevent bullying

• The clip starts off showing a young girl’s face. By her appearance, she looks young; probably in grade school.
• The girl has signs of either tiredness, or abuse, having marks and bags underneath her eyes.
• The lighting of the clip is very dull, setting a more serious or upsetting tone, rather than a brighter, happier one.
• The girl is also outside. This would mean that although she is in grade school, the setting is outdoors, somewhere out of the classroom. The sounds and rest of the clip reveal that the scenery is by the school; either recess or after school.
• Her face seems troubled, with no signs of happiness or enjoyment.
• Showing her face makes us assume she is observing something, through hearing, visually, or both. Whatever she is observing can be pieced to her expression to assume that what she sees is unpleasant to her.
• Voices are heard saying “Nobody wants you here,” and other teasing. Immediately we would assume that the remarks are being aimed at the girl. However, a ‘him’ is slipped in the remarks, hinting that the remarks are directed to another person. But, the “him” is very hard to catch.
• As the clip continues, she shows more expression. She is trying to hold back her feelings; A tear rolls down her face, and she appears to be forcing herself to a decision.
• As the tear rolls down her face, we her other children chanting “cry, cry, cry!” However, the girl finally brings herself to say “Stop it!” and we see that the other kids are not telling the girl to cry, but that the chants were directed to another student.
• After “Stop it” is yelled, the camera finally changes view, showing a scene of many kids, who are dressed similarly, in school uniform, surrounding one child who sticks out.
  • The kids who are dressed similarly look as though they’re an obvious group, wearing similar shades of maroon, and all having dark hair. The other student that’s surrounded wears a light blue, and has blonde hair.
  • The maroon appears to be the school uniform; however the bully victim is without his maroon sweater, sticking out from the group.
• The bullies are of different genders, most likely showing that a bully can be of either gender. However, the male bullies show faces of disgust as they leave the scene, while the females seem to accept the outburst.
• The maroon dressed kids turn to the girl, and stop harassing the blue dressed boy. His bag is thrown down and the maroon dressed kids leave. The blue dressed boy stares back at the originally troubled girl.
  • We can then see that the troubled girl is also wearing maroon. The other kids that run by in the background are also wearing maroon, and also all have dark hair. This makes the bully victim more of an obvious standout, not being apart of the group or anyone else.
• The backpack belongs to the bully victim. However, it is also maroon, just like the colors of the other students. The backpack is opened and the containments are emptied. The backpack shows that the bully victim belongs to the school, but is being bullied. However, when the backpack is thrown down, it shows that his bullying (hopefully not for just the time being) has come to a stop.
• The two stare at one another, without saying a word. But now, the originally troubled girl looks more calm, but also moved from an angry state to a shy one. She stares back and fiddles with her fingers and sleeves, to show the shyness.
• Throughout the clip, we notice that there are no adults or signs of authority around. Around the scene of bullying are other children who are playing, or looking out of windows. All of them pass by or observe the scene without doing anything.
• On screen, during the silence, words read “Find a voice for someone who can’t find theirs.”
  • The words are represented by the girl speaking out for the bully victim. However, they are continually represented in the current situation because the two children are staring at one another in silence; more specifically, the bully victim has not said a word. Not even a “Thank you.”
• The screen fades away into the foundation, and it is revealed clearly that the clip was to help prevent bullying, which was easily figured out by the clip’s scenes. The foundation reads “partnering to prevent bullying,” meaning that the foundation cannot prevent bullying alone; they’d need more help.

The clip was made to focus on speaking out against bullying. It’s hard to speak out when being in place of the victim, so it’s our duty to help step forward against bullying and together prevent it, especially if we witness it.