gaywrites:

Bully, a new documentary exposing the harsh realities of bullying in schools, has been rated R by the MPAA and therefore will not be allowed to be shown in schools.

The Weinstein Company, the group behind the film, appealed to have the film’s rating changed from R to PG-13, because children of any age are generally not allowed to see R-rated movies at school. But the company lost its appeal, and the R rating was upheld for the film’s strong language.

The argument in favor of keeping the R rating is that parents have a right to watch movies with such strong content with their children (or not allow their kids to see such movies at all), and the language in the film may violate that right. However, many kids will never have the chance to see this film unless they watch it in school. The target audience for the movie is adolescents, who would likely be the ones to benefit most from it.

Watch a trailer for the documentary at the link above. Personally, I hope schools still put forth efforts to get kids to see this movie, whether it requires permission slips, advance discussions with parents or the like. Kids of our generation need to see this movie, and a few bad words (that they’ve probably heard before) shouldn’t stand in the way.