Thanks Mary!!

By: MarySue Swift
P.E. Teacher for Middle School/Athletic Director
Gateway Christian School

I saw the DVD Adina’s Deck in my Youth at Risk class at Chapman University. At the first mention of cyber bullying I thought it was ridiculous. My actual thought was “so turn off the computer”. After watching the DVD I realized that not only is this a real issue among today’s youth, but that my own teenage daughter had recently been a victim of cyber bullying as well. I immediately purchased a copy of the DVD to have on hand for my children, to show to my principal so we could invite Debbie to do an assembly, and to have for my future work as an MFT working with youth and children.

This letter came from Marilyn Schaumburg, the 6th Grade Advisor and Upper School Technology Resource Teacher at Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco, CA. Thanks Marilyn!

The girls LOVED Adina’s Deck! I mean they REALLY loved it. Here are the comments they said right afterwards:

• This should be on TV
• There should be more episodes
• It was so great!
• Everything was so well done, the story flowed, and I want to see more!
• They should make an episode of what happened to the little girl
• Makes you want to see more
• Gets to the point of what really goes on.
• Normally at school you don’t get to watch things you actually enjoy!
• I would want to see another one.
• Even though they know who did it, they made it seem suspenseful.
• You should put it in stores.
• Might be good idea for TV show
• You could have episodes not just on cyberbullying.
• It should be more well known; other teachers should be able to buy it
  (Here they were talking about the marketing of the product.)

*note: Marissa came to the screening of Adina’s Deck in Modesto. She sent us this letter and said “I’d LOVE to post a blog.” Thanks Marissa!*

Marissa Lee and Kelcie Stranahan

By: Marissa Lee, 12 years old, Prescott Senior Elementary School

Adina’s Deck is a really good movie about cyber bullying. Before I watched this film, I had no clue what it meant, but after I saw the film I noticed how important it was for me to keep prepared. You should seriously watch it! I would recommend it to everyone because it was really a great movie. I would also really like to see more episodes for example for when the Adina’s Deck crew helps some more kids and stuff like that…

The actors , i think, did a really good job making this film. They got the message across and added some humor and drama. I think my favorite character would have to be Adina because I thought she was gorgeous and she just nailed the acting. I think my favorite scene would have to be the part where Clara and her dad were in the kitchen because that was hilarious. The movie was really cute. =]

Marissa Lee and Amelia Varni

Marissa Lee and Stephanie Cameron

Adina’s Deck was mentioned today in the Modesto Bee! The link can be found here.

Working to stop bullying at school
Survey of kids shows the fears and figures; officials are training

By MERRILL BALASSONE
mbalassone@modbee.com

last updated: November 13, 2007 07:31:56 AM

Third-grade twins from Ohio enjoyed brief talk show fame this month with their invention of wedgie-proof underwear, the “Rip Away 1000,” meant to guard against schoolyard bullies.

If only fending off bullies were as simple as tear-away boxer shorts.

With bullying in California’s schools becoming more dangerous and frequent, the state Legislature last summer dubbed this week Anti-Bullying Week.

Cell phones and Internet networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have given bullies new avenues to torment their classmates, from posting embarrassing messages online to spreading nasty text messages.

More troubling are the school shootings at high schools and colleges where a common thread was that the shooter had been bullied by his classmates.

“It’s one of the biggest issues we have on our campuses,” said Vicki Bauman, director of prevention programs for the Stanislaus County Office of Education. “It’s where school violence starts.”

Middle school girls are most often the culprits behind bullying by Internet, known as cyber-bullying, Bauman said.

“The kids who are less physically aggressive on campus are doing more of the cyber-bullying, because it’s not face to face and they get power behind the computer,” she said. “You can ruin someone’s reputation in a day with cyberbullying.”

Administrators from school districts around the county watched a film about cyber-bullying last month called “Adina’s Deck” as part of their training on the issue. The film also was screened at the Gallo Center for the Arts late last month.

The most recent statewide survey showed bullying in all forms seems to peak in seventh grade.

In a 2005 study conducted by WestEd, a research group from San Francisco, nearly 40 percent of seventh-graders, 34 percent of ninth-graders and 31 percent of 11th-graders reported being harassed or bullied at least once at school during a 12-month period.

Most of those students reported being harassed because of gender, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.

Statewide and in Stanislaus County, about one-tenth of surveyed students reported having been threatened or injured with a weapon.

Among the other statistics reported by 4,300 Stanislaus County seventh-graders surveyed about bullying:

• Nearly half reported being pushed or shoved on campus, a higher rate than reported among their peers statewide.

• Twenty-eight percent said they were fearful of being beaten up at school.

• About one-third had been involved in a physical fight.

Bauman said the key to combating bullying is for teachers to be aware of teasing and bullying in their classrooms and stop it immediately.

“It’s the teacher’s responsibility to be in control of their classroom,” Bauman said.

Because for many students, their worst day at school is no longer as easy to forget as a bunched-up pair of Fruit of the Looms.

To look up bullying rates by school, school district or county, visit WestEd’s California Health Kids Survey results at www.wested.org/healthykidssurvey/results.

Bee staff writer Merrill Balassone can be reached at mbalassone@modbee.com or 578-2337.

This is a letter from Jacob Carmack, an  8th grade student who saw Adina’s Deck at Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, CA. Thanks Jacob!

I really thought that Adina’s Deck was a good show. It was educating and even though you can tell its maybe not the most realistic show on the planet, it does give you an important lesson about staying cautious with any type of technology or electronics. The world is a nasty place and many people are hurt by it. Electronic communication devices have just made that easier. This show has made me realize a lot about what is happening in this world and how we not only can avoid it, but change it as well.

Here’s a link to the original article from Sept. 17, 2007

Movie shot around Bay Area addresses teen cyber-bullying
Oakland Tribune, by Karen Holzmeister

CASTRO VALLEY — “Adina’s Deck,” a new film about teenage cyber- bullying, got its start with a tip from Sarah Moody, a Canyon Middle School counselor.

The 30-minute movie was fleshed out in talks with students at Kennedy Middle School in Redwood City and La Entrada Middle School in Palo Alto.

With young volunteer actors from throughout Northern California, the educational video was shot in May at Gunn High School and Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, and an Atherton home.

Now co-directors Debbie Heimowitz of Castro Valley and Jason Azicri of Santa Clara are marketing the movie to school districts and educational organizations.

It’s also been accepted for the Kids First Film Festival, which features new and classic children’s movies, television programs and DVDs.

All pretty heady stuff for Heimowitz, 26, and Azicri, 27, the producer and writer of the film, respectively. They shot quickly on a shoestring budget, benefiting from volunteer time and services from sponsors, cinematographers and production companies.

Most of all, Heimowitz and Azicri said, they had the help of hundreds of teenagers on-screen and off to get across their message:

Threatening Web sites, e-mails and text messages happen in the workplace and are often directed at celebrities, such as Britney Spears, and especially at teenagers.

“To some (teenagers), cyber-bullying is funny and a joke, but harmless,” Heimowitz explained. “Others are malicious and they want to hurt somebody. There’s also a big disconnect, a gap, like ‘I know I hurt somebody, but no one will get me.’”

“Adina’s Deck” focuses on Adina, Clara, Skye and Melody. Adina, herself a former cyber-bully, and Clara use computer technology to help Skye discover who created an “I Hate Skye” Web site and who is sending threatening messages.

The “deck” refers to a deck of cards. Players are given five cards and can speak only if they offer a card. A player must hug the person they’re addressing after five cards are used.

Azicri, originally from Miami, met Heimowitz in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, where they created “The Sofa,” an independent movie.

He’s now obtaining his master’s degree in psychology at Santa Clara University. Their joint film project was Heimowitz’s thesis project at Stanford University, where she just completed her master’s degree in design and technology.

Heimowitz, a child actor in musical theater and commercials, wanted to design a show around an educational problem and its solution.

When she spoke with Moody — a co-worker of Heimowitz’s mother, Barbara — the Canyon counselor said self-mutilation, rumors and cyber-bullying are major concerns.

The pre-production work and writing by Azicri — the storyteller – - started in February. Casting calls at Stanford, on Craigslist and at the San Francisco Academy of Art resulted in resumes from 300 Northern California teenagers excited about the prospect of movie- making. About 125 people were involved in what Heimowitz estimates was a $500,000 production.

Final casting, set design, music selection, obtaining insurance and finding shooting locales were conducted simultaneously.

If the film sells, Heimowitz and Azicri hope to create six more episodes, showing teenagers transforming bad technological practices into good ones.

Check out film trailers, the story behind “Adina’s Deck” and resources to discourage cyber-bullying at http:// www.adinasdeck.com.

c2007 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Here is a link to the original article, which was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 15th, 2007

Debbie Heimowitz brings cyber bullying to light in a new film
by: Sam Whiting

Back when Debbie Heimowitz was a middle schooler in Castro Valley, if you wanted to cut somebody down you talked behind her back. Now you post your putdowns on the Internet. Heimowitz, a 26-year-old grad student at Stanford, has made a film about this online cruelty.

“Cyber bullying is harassing someone using the Internet, cell phones and any sort of digital technology. A common scenario is they will find somebody’s picture on the Internet that they know from school. Let’s say it’s ‘Amy.’ I download the picture, Photoshop it, go to MySpace, create a new account, create a new e-mail address and display this whole ‘I Hate Amy’ MySpace page. Then I have everybody at school write mean things about Amy in the comments section. Amy finds out that now everybody at the school hates her and has no clue who started this page.

I had to do a master’s thesis, so I went to Kennedy Middle School in Redwood City and volunteered for 10 weeks at their after-school program with a group of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade girls. I needed to find out if this is really a problem. We did this MySpace activity where we made fake pages. I brought in pictures of kids I found on the Internet and said, ‘Write whatever you want.’ They all wrote really mean things. I said, ‘Is this something that would happen on the Internet?’ They said, ‘Yes, because I don’t know them’ or ‘because it’s funny.’

What I found, which shaped my whole thesis, is that kids had a disconnect between their virtual actions and their real-life consequences. It’s kind of like giving someone a car without driver’s ed. They’re getting technology, but they don’t understand the social ramifications of it. I found that it is mostly middle school girls and it’s happening in all socio and economic backgrounds. In addition to working at Kennedy, I started volunteering at La Entrada School in Menlo Park. I found it was happening even more at La Entrada than at Kennedy.

I started realizing that the biggest problem with the Internet and cyber bullying is that it’s anonymous. So it made a lot of sense to do a cyber bullying film. You’re not supposed to see who’s bullying them, but now we see it. You’re not supposed to see what happens to the victim. Now we’re going to see it.

The film, which I developed with screenwriter Jason Azicri, is called “Adina’s Deck.” Adina is a girl who got kicked out of school for cyber bullying, so her parents took away her computer and gave her a deck of playing cards. The deck symbolizes her transformation. It’s inspired by things I saw happen, but all the characters are completely made up.
We held auditions at Stanford. I posted ads online and had 300 submissions from kids wanting to try out for four female parts and one male part. We had a huge cattle call. When the kids started coming to the auditions they were like, ‘I’m really excited about this because this happened to me.’

The film is 30 minutes long. I financed it using my entire savings account, and I got a lot of donations. We filmed at Gunn High School and Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto. We had 75 crew members volunteer their time. I still have four cases of Red Bull, five laptop bags and six beanbag chairs that were donated. We’re saving it because we want there to be an Episode 2.”

We were so happy to mail our first International order to Hong Kong this week!

When we started Adina’s Deck, we knew that cyber bullying was an international problem. One of the most famous cases was the Nevada-Tan murder in Japan, in which a girl murdered her classmate after reading mean things she posted online. Since International Cyber Bullying research is still emerging, we are interested in how different countries will respond to Adina’s Deck.

We are greatly looking forward to hearing from our new friends at the Hong Kong International School! We are very happy they reached out and contacted us.

We look forward to continue spreading cyber bullying and Internet Safety to more International Schools!

This weekend, Jason and I lead a session about Cyber Bullying and Adina’s Deck at the CA League of Middle Schools Technology Conference.It was our first time at a Conference, and we were very happy with the people we met! There were 25 educators: teachers, principals, technology coordinators in our group. Schools varied from all over California- from Bakersfield, to Pasadena to San Francisco. We were so impressed at the innovation and creativity of these educators. They worked tirelessly to improve the lives of their students. One educator, Stan Trevena, the author of PacificRim Exchange came to our session wrote this entry on his blog:

As I posted yesterday, I am down at a conference in Monterey for middle and high school educators. This morning I attended probably the best session to date for any conference I’ve attended (and I go to a few of them) dealing with cyber bullying. The session was on the film Adina’s Deck… This topic is of critical relevance to today’s teens, and yes even tweens. The production values and acting in this student film far surpass a lot of what is out there being shoveled on kids in this age demographic. The actresses were perfect for their roles and pulled in most of those who were in attendance at this morning’s session. You can read the entire entry here (http://pacificrimx.wordpress.com/)

We are so grateful to have met educators including Stan at our session. They are helping shed light on the topic of Internet Safety and Cyber Bullying. Jason and I really hope to attend and speak at the next CA League of Middle Schools Conference. Thanks so much to all of you who attended our session and we met at the conference. We learned so much from all of you!