Sioux City Superintendent gives White House presentation at Orpheum’s premiere of ‘Bully’
Dr. Paul Gausman, Superintendent of the Sioux City School District, will be a guest speaking briefly before the film showing and participating in the post-show discussion of Bully, the nationally acclaimed documentary. Dr. Gausman’s school district granted a film crew access to the district to follow around a bullied student for an entire year. This Sioux City school is one of the focal points in the Bully documentary, which follows the lives of five students from five different states who face bullying on a daily basis. The showing is set for Thursday, Jan. 24, at 7 pm. The post-show discussion and Q & A session will begin shortly after the film.
“I’ve seen the film 15-20 times already,” says Gausman, who plans to give a similar presentation at the Orpheum as he gave to the White House. “I had the opportunity to watch the film at the White House, and to see the premiere at Tribeca Film Festival.”
Gausman says he will spend a few minutes before the film on Thursday talking to the audience about Sioux City’s role in the documentary. He’ll touch on how and why they participated, and what their participation has yielded in the Sioux City community.
“When they originally came to us, it was called The Sioux City Project,” says Gausman. “They told us the film was going to highlight some of the good things we were doing in our district to prevent bullying. However, they were very honest with us in letting us know that they wanted to follow a specific student who was bullied or a specific bullying situation as well.”
Dr. Gausman was the keynote speaker at the first ever Governor’s Bullying Prevention Summit held at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Nearly 1,200 attended the sold out summit that took place on November 27. The summit was intended to raise awareness about the pervasive problem of bullying, and to send the strongest possible message that schools alone cannot stop it, that communities must become more engaged in taking the steps needed to address this issue.
That’s exactly what the Orpheum Theater Center is doing with its one-night showing of Bully this January. Showtime is at 7 pm and admission is $7. Limited seating is available. Call 641-844-5919 to reserve your ticket. For more information, go to www.ivotc.com.
“We have to understand that bullying is a community issue, not just a school issue,” says Gausman. “This film takes a look from the victim’s perspective. Next, I would like to see a film from the bully’s perspective.”
The Orpheum Theater Center is owned and operated by the Iowa Valley Community College District and this presentation is in partnership with the Not In Our Town Committee Marshalltown Project.