BULLY (R) It sometimes feels like bullying is the real national pastime. We currently have a candidate for the presidency, Mitt Romney, who at the age of 18 viciously attacked a fellow student, a homosexual man, but conveniently can't remember the incident even though five fellow students who were there have never been able to forget it. Romney has glibly referred to himself as a prankster back in those days, as if there's nothing more to be said about it. But for any kids who have ever been shoved in a locker, had their face plunged into a dirty toilet, or been punched, pinched and kicked simply because they looked or acted different, the violence can't be as easily excused as harmless joking around. For them, adolescence is pure hell.

Bullying is certainly not a new phenomenon, though the subject of it has become increasingly visible in the public and media forums because of several high-profile suicides by kids who were routinely bullied by fellow youths. Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch, looks at this troubling problem by focusing on a handful of children and teens, mostly living in America's heartland, who have been brutalized. There is Alex, a gawky boy from Iowa with no friends, who is repeatedly picked on and beaten up (some of it captured on camera); Kelby, an Oklahoma teen who is a lesbian and has been ostracized by her school and community; Ja'Meya, an African-American teen who pulled a gun on students who constantly threatened her; and two boys, Ty and Tyler, who both killed themselves presumably because of bullying. Bully also focuses on the parents and school faculty who aren't always clued in to how bad these kinds of attacks are. Maybe they've also forgotten their own school days when walking the halls of school could feel akin to Lord of the Flies.

Bully zeros in on kids from mostly rural Midwest or Southern towns. Why? It's not because Hirsch believes that this sort of behavior doesn't occur in larger cities. Big-city schools are tough and brutal. That's the stereotype. Small towns, however, have traditionally been viewed as quiet and safe places to raise children. Maybe the sooner we realize that isn't always the truth, the quicker we can progress to dealing with the issue. Bully isn't a great documentary, but it is an important social document for students, parents, educators and especially Mr. Romney to see.