To This Day: Poet Shane Koyczan Narrates Beautiful Anti-Bullying Animation (VIDEO)

[zemi_chan]

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B.C. poet Shane Koyczan is no stranger to being bullied as a kid. The poet, who gained notoriety for his inspired performance at the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony, also knows that bullying can leave psychic scars that last years.

Earlier this year, Koyczan put a call-out to artists to animate "To This Day," a poem he wrote that tackles

Comments

[muizenstaartje]

I had to cry too when I watched it. It's such a recognisable mixed message of despair and strength out of necessity.

Not wanting to go into too much detail, but I too have been assaulted when I was young. I prefer not to call it bullying, but name it what it was. I was beaten, robbed, stalked, followed around closely, threatened, sexually assaulted, and mostly verbally abused.
Teachers saw it and moved to the opposite part of the class so they could ignore it, I told my class mentor (=an adult) and he made promises, but did nothing. My parents told me it was my own fault and how did I dare to cause such trouble for them!
In the end I was lucky. I had hit one of my assailants and reported the incident to the vice-principal. What I didn't know was that the school needed only one more strike for the guy I had hit to expel him. When I returned to class and have that guy immediately pulled out of class to not return for quite a while, suddenly made me a less wanted target. It didn't stop, but it became bearable. Enough for me to survive, which I did, but I was close to not to.
They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, but I could have used all that strength and energy for so many great things and yet I needed it all to hang on and survive. It's a good thing I can now live the life that I survived for thanks to myself.

The saddest part in all this was that as a victim I learned first-hand all the crap you can get away with. At a certain point I was so broken I didn’t care what happened as long as it wasn’t me, so I became crafty at directing the attention of my assailants towards others. In a way, that makes me a "bully" too. I had my reasons and none are an excuse.

It really illustrates it is still very important to provide a safe environment for children to grow up in and for people to live in. I have no idea if a movie like this one can actually reach and change people who can make it stop. Maybe if enough stories are being told again and again it manages to drive the point home.

[muizenstaartje]

Oh, and the reason why I was bullied: they were sadistic jerks.

I was a bit timid and quiet, because I was also abused at home and the best way to survive there was by being invisible. If there had been nothing wrong with me, they would have made up stuff like I would smell or have fleas. It would be the first one someone life is ruined, because others say they have "fleas".

Once I wasn't that much fun to target anymore they moved on to another quiet girl that was an easier target.

[girly123]

The teacher thing is so frustrating. I understand why they don't encourage that bullied kids beat the shit out of the people bullying them, for liability reasons, but "go tell an adult! :D " only actually works if the adults give a shit.

[muizenstaartje]

Yeah, that's why I said I was lucky. Instead of being "a bother" and make the adults aware of a problem, I handed them the solution to one of their problems. Yet the effect of that guy getting expelled was significant and helped me nontheless. People in charge stepping up to end bullying is really important. It really makes a difference.

[nesmith]

I learned early on that telling an adult was by and large useless. If they didn't just do nothing, it was always some stupid crap like "shake hands with the bully" which ended up changing nothing or even making the bullying worse.

[hey_kayla_jay]

My brothers former principal told month mom that Adam (brother) would have to find a way to deal with his bullies on his own. His way of "dealing" was to break some noses.
And wouldn't you know it, we transferred him to a different school shortly after and the bullying problem magically disappeared.

[sfrlz]

They also seem to forget that sometimes the teachers are the bullies themselves...

[seeinglife]

They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, but I could have used all that strength and energy for so many great things and yet I needed it all to hang on and survive.

THIS. SO MUCH THIS. I hate this saying so fucking much because of this.

[romp]

They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, but I could have used all that strength and energy for so many great things and yet I needed it all to hang on and survive.

Exactly. That's true for so many people. I hate that reasoning. What many people actually do is shut down emotionally--I know I did. And do we really need more emotionally stunted people in the world?!

And on calling it what it is: yes! I avoid the word "bullying" because too many people think it's a cute and acceptable form of sadism. Call it harassment and intimidation and assault. Why do adult have legal protection from these things and not children?