Seven members of the Conservatory Theater Ensemble (CTE) acted in a short film in collaboration with the No Bully organization on June 2. The film depicted an innovative approach to handling school bullies in order to educate teachers about a unique way to solve student conflicts through the form of what the organization calls “solution teams.”

“No Bully is a non-profit based in San Francisco dedicated to educating teachers at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels about the three week process of a solution team,” drama teacher Ben Cleaveland said. “The solution team surrounds an affected student from bullying with peers directly and indirectly involved in the bullying and is led by an adult facilitator.”

No Bully’s approach consists of a four step program to deal with bullying that Tam students portrayed by acting in the roles of an antagonist, victim, bystander and enabler.

“I played the role of the main bully’s accomplice,” junior Gabe Renneisen said. “The film showed the evolution of my character and the bully…and the impact the solution team had on the problem.”

According to Cleaveland, No Bully will upload the CTE film to their website for future reference during their presentations to schools across the country. The organization’s mission extends “not only to kids getting bullied physically or verbally at school, but also intervenes in the issue of cyberbullying,” Renneisen said.