Programming note: "The Bully Effect" is a new AC360 documentary that follows the lives of three families since they were featured in "Bully." It airs Sunday, March 3 and Saturday, March 9 at 8 p.m. ET.
For AC360's "The Bully Effect," Lee Hirsch, the director of the film "Bully," returns, for the first time in 27 years, to the middle school where he was victimized as a child.
Hirsch's movie is an eye-opening look at the psychological damage caused by bullying. He's used "Bully" to launch a movement to make schools safer and teach kids and parents how to combat the problem. Every student in his former middle school went to see the film as part of his initiative for 1 million children to watch it.
As he walked the hallways and spoke with students and administrators, Hirsch saw that the place that reminded him of pain and sadness, is now a very positive environment. His film helped create that change. "The work that I've really thrown myself, I think, into, has really been a response to the things that I went through when I was a kid. And it feels healing," he said.