Real for Us: History Background and Teacher's Guide

Ron Haese is an independent award-winning filmmaker from Wisconsin and founder of Haesefilms Ltd. Who has produced and directed more than 60 feature films and a thousand documentaries. Working with schools, non-profits, civic clubs, law enforcement and educational entities, he raises awareness and consciousness about contemporary and pressing social problems through the medium of film. His work has been recognized at film festivals and earned him 14 awards. His portfolio includes training films, documentaries, public service announcements and work with giants like United Way and Paramount Pictures.

Pledge 2 Change Project. His “Pledge 2 Change” program works with local high schools to create educator manuals and teacher guides to examine contemporary issues like underage drinking, drugs, domestic violence, and bullying with students. Students take an individual pledge to change or avoid dangerous behavior.

Footnote and Voices’ “Pledge 2 Change.” Voices Education Project would like to help Ron Haese realize his dream of offering this film to every high school not just in the country, but in the world by featuring Haese’s film and his work in our third edition release of “Words and Violence” that takes on bullying from the playground to tabloid journalism.

Film and Educator Manuals: How to Order .The film “Real for Us” as well as Haese’s other films feature accompanying manuals for teachers with lesson plans and instructional materials.

Haese’s film about student and peer-on-peer bullying “Real for Us,” featured in the trailer as well as other Haese films and their accompanying educator manuals and lesson plans are featured at Haesefilm’s website: http://pledge2change.com/index.html You may order the films on the “Order” page: http://shop.haesefilms.com/

History and Background of “Real for Us” and Neenah High School Neenah High School (population 2,500) is located in Neenah, a small city (population 25,000) in Northeast Wisconsin considered part of the “Fox Valley,” a valley carved by an ancient glacier and intersected by a winding river that connects to one of the largest inland lake in the United States—Lake Winnebago named for the Winnebago tribe because Wisconsin was originally Indian country. “Neenah” in the Winnebago language means “running water.”

Neenah High School Vice Principal Vicki Bayer had this to say about the “Real for Us” film project:

“After the first film with Neenah High School, Ron and I were discussing what topic to conquer next. It was between bullying and prescription drug abuse, as both are identified as problems impacting youth today. Ron finally made the final call: “Let’s address bullying because we have seen an increase in youth suicide in the Fox Valley.” He felt, and I agreed that it was important to get the word out about it quickly.

The board, staff and faculty have all had extremely positive response. We had a viewing for the faculty before the student showing, and they felt the movie would have a positive impact on students as well as adults. A few of the coaches came up to me afterwards to say that some of the scenes in the movie caused them to reflect on their own behaviors. That is exactly what Ron had intended, so we were pleased with the impact aspect of the film.

Students too, were very positive and that feedback let us know that we were on the right track. Many students felt compelled to become active in addressing bullying-- standing up against it.

On premier night we had a decent turn-out of parents at the viewing. Many were concerned with the fact that often times bullying occurs outside of the view of adults. They wished schools could do more, but understood that often bullying is often covert and difficult to identify and deal with. The parents have always been supportive of our work to keep our school climate positive for everyone including projects like Challenge Day and the Diversity Fair.

Community agencies and members have always been supportive. For example last year we did a week long Kind Project campaign with outstanding community support outstanding in its own challenge to join our efforts in promoting kindness towards others.

Especially encouraging was the fact that there was no negative fallout in the aftermath of this film project. No jealousy, No envy. No sabotage. None.

The student body itself at Neenah High, has always been the driving force in our work; frequently the projects that we do are student-driven. The focus on bullying was in large part because the students themselves were saying ‘more needs to be done, state-wide as well as nationally, to address bullying behaviors.’

Student actors were not treated any differently upon the films completion and debut other than perhaps, the recognition they had received immediately following the presentations. They are great kids, and were already recognized on campus as student leaders.

Observation tells us that change has happened. Awareness has been raised and we’ve observed changes in behaviors.

What we learned from the experience is that dealing with bullying behaviors cannot rest solely on schools. Parents must monitor their student's behaviors and address any situations quickly. The issues arise often in relationship issues and the bullying can occur outside of school. We've learned that when parents help out by doing their part, bullying incidents can be reduced. And of course, we learned that it’s always a pleasure to work with Ron Haese. “

Bio: Vicki Bayer is Associate Principal for Neenah High School and Student Assistance Program Coordinator for the Neenah Joint School District. Prevention programming at Neenah, under Vicki's leadership, included such projects as Challenge Day, Leadership Council, Runner's High, WNHS Podcast Show, and a variety of student-acted prevention movies. In coordination with Haesefilms, Neenah's Student Assistance has helped produce movies about drunken driving, bullying, and prescription drug abuse.