Opening up was the point, he insisted. Too many kids suffer needlessly in silence when telling an adult can bring instant relief.
"I wanted to give victims a voice," Harowitz told me excitedly before the assemblies. "When you say something, you get it to stop."
Make it raw, keep it real
The first screening was for the sixth-graders, small and squirmy and clueless about the occasion.
Principal George King explained that Harowitz inspired family friend Solita Hanna to recruit 40 filmmaking pros to produce the PSA free. They worked 12 hours just to make a 30-second spot.
STOP was no amateur affair. Co-director Rob Markopoulos spent a decade at NFL Films. Assistant director Hanna has worked with Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks, but gushes over Harowitz. Shooters INC, the Old City post-production masters, fine-tuned the public-service announcement and a three-minute making-of video that would have cost a paying client at least $70,000.
The vision? All Harowitz's.
"He wanted it raw. He wanted real kids and to film it at his school," marveled Hanna, who aims to air STOP on TV and hopes the campaign goes viral online.
"I said, 'Ben, what is the message?' He said, 'To speak out with victims' voices.' "
The script features hair-pulling, name-calling, shoving, and tripping. On the bus, in class, and at lunch, kids intimidate and insult one another in a crescendo of cruelty.
Please stop the noise, a girl begs as the camera encircles four kids in the final dramatic scene.
Please stop the anger.
Please stop the hatred.
Please stop the bullying.
It happens to everyone
Lest the students think Harowitz an anomaly, before each screening he and classmate Joe Seifrit read sobering statistics about the emotional epidemic.
