The president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society has joined a national call to ban a video game she says promotes bullying and violence.
Bully: Scholarship Edition was released to stores across Canada Tuesday, after months of hype about the game featuring a badly behaved schoolboy at an upscale prep school.
The game is published by Rockstar Games, the Vancouver-based company lambasted by critics after it helped produce the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto in 1997.
Parents and educators -- as well as North American lawmakers -- were furious about scenes including shooting, looting and sex acts portrayed in the various editions of Grand Theft that followed.
While some reviewers say Bully doesn't portray the same level of violence as Grand Theft Auto, critics said Tuesday they're concerned about scenes showing students assaulting each other, among other disrespectful acts targeting other kids, teachers and property.
"A ban on something this outrageous shouldn't be necessary.... I think no child should see this game," said MTS president Pat Isaak. "I think it should not be available. And I think, frankly, any responsible adult wouldn't need a ban, they'd just boycott it."
On Tuesday, Winnipeg stores reported the game for Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles was on their shelves for approximately $50 before taxes.
Warnings on the game say it contains crude humour, foul language, alcohol and tobacco use, sexual themes and violence. The game is rated T, which stands for "teen," according to local gamesellers.
That means anyone over the age of 13 can purchase it. In Manitoba, games can also be rated M for mature -- which means buyers must be 17 or older.
Advertisements for the game online at Rockstar's website feature a series of trailers showing teen Jimmy Hopkins, Bully's protagonist, at Bullworth Academy.
In the advertisements, Hopkins and a female student cheerleader discuss nude photos, he shoots a fire extinguisher down a school hallway, and he tells his new stepfather "you're fat, and bald."
The website promises players that as a "mischevious schoolboy, you'll stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the worst school around, Bullworth Academy, a corrupt and crumbling prep school with an uptight facade."
Isaak says it promotes cyber-bullying and face-to-face bullying among students.
"It glorifies violence, and it says to children: 'It's OK to be violent, it's OK to demean another child, it's OK to hurt and target either an individual or group of individuals," she said. "What happens is teachers in schools end up having to undo all the dangerous and damaging messages that come from something like this."
In July 2005, Mandy Delaronde, wife of slain Manitoba RCMP Const. Dennis Strongquill, urged the Manitoba government to ban video games like 25 to Life. The game allowed players to adopt the persona of a gangster and then murder police officers, or grab bystanders to use as human shields. In April 2006, a defence lawyer told a Winnipeg court that a 13-year-old charged with homicide had shot his 15-year-old friend after mimicking scenes from the ultra-violent Grand Theft Auto.
The 15-year-old was killed instantly by a shotgun blast after the lawyer's client and several other youths were playing around with the firearm in a Sherbrook Street apartment in February 2005.
In October 2005 -- ahead of the game's British release -- an English MP concerned about violence in Bully urged the government to refer the game to the British Board of Film Classification.
A call to the Rockstar Games office in Vancouver pointed media calls to an office in New York City. A message left there Tuesday afternoon was not immediately returned.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
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