Educational Media Reviews Online

The two programs, Pushed to the Brink and Are You a Bully? Test, work together to help address bullying among middle school students. They may be used separately by teachers or guidance counselors to educate students about what counts as bullying, the feelings associated with bullying and being bullied, as well as frank discussions of adolescents’ vulnerability to the exclusionary tactics and power plays that form the core of bullying behavior.

The screen time is shared between victims of bullying, reformed teen bullies, parents and the psychologist and bullying expert Dr. Joel Haber. Discussions between Dr. Haber and bullying victims may also be useful as a model for adults initiating discussions with young people about bullying. Feelings are the main focus of the conversations as well as insights into the motivations and tactics of a bully and the resulting feelings and increasing isolation of the victims.

Solutions are offered for students who witness bullying, those who are victims and for those who recognize their own behavior as bullying. In Pushed to the Brink, suicide is specifically discussed as a consequence of bullying, and computer social networks, such as Facebook, are shown to be powerful tools for bullies. Parents of two young people who committed suicide due to bullying talk about both their own and their children’s experiences and reach out with advice to students who may be victims of bullying.

These two films would be useful for an academic college collection that supports a counseling or education curriculum as well as a junior high or high school media center as a resource for parents, teachers and administrators tackling the problem of bullying in schools. Overall, the mix of adolescent’s first hand experience mixed with pro-active advice and a professional psychologists explanation of bullying and being bullied offers a point of entry for many audiences.