| Updated: 5/18/2012 9:13 am |
Published: 5/17/2012 10:15 pm
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More than 1 in 3 teens experience cyber bullying.
A national contest is working to fight that problem by challenging students to make a difference through "filmmaking".
Out of hundreds of entries one Muskogee teen made the final cut.
18-year old Luke Logsdon's film is shedding light on a problem troubling schools across the nation. His movie entitled, “Be the Voice,” shows a teen in pain. She’s hurting because she can't escape the people torturing her online.
"Even just sitting in classrooms and listening to what people are sending students it’s pretty bad, he told FOX23. “It's sad."
Logsdon is using technology the same way bullies do except he's challenging his classmates to rise above it.
“Bullying face to face is bad but I feel when you're getting cyber bullied it can be anonymous,” Logsdon said. “You don't know who it is. It can hurt."
Logsdon hasn't experienced it firsthand but his friends have.
"The things these people tell them make them feel really bad. They start to feel low about themselves and they start to think, 'Why am I here?'" he said.
It may have all started as an assignment, but there's no grade to show what impact this video will have.
Logsdon has already spoken with cyber bullies and victims and people are talking. That’s something his teacher, Shane Stewart, is happy to see.
"I've seen what happens to these kids, they're torn out they don't know what to do, said Stewart.” I walk out of my classroom one day and see a girl on the phone with her mother. Stewart said the girl told her mother, "Mom they're still bothering me, they're still texting.”
Luke is hoping his video will help people stop, think and work on a solution.
But in the end, "If my video reaches one person I feel like I’ve done something," said Logsdon.
And that's what matters.
Luke is one of 15 teens to fly to San Francisco, California for the first ever "Teen Video Awards". First place wins a $5,000 scholarship and a trip for two to the *Sundance Film Festival* in 2013.
