Rats & Bullies: The Dawn-Marie Wesley Story

The feature documentary film Rats & Bullies : The Dawn-Marie Wesley Story produced by Roberta McMillan and Ray Buffer probes the suicide of a 14-year-old girl from Mission, BC named Dawn-Marie Wesley, who took her own life by hanging herself with a dog leash in her bedroom after systematic bullying and threats by three teenage girls from her school. Her suicide, was discovered by her then-13-year-old brother who had come to her room prior to the family's dinner, to use her TV. The bullies were named in Dawn-Marie's suicide note which prompted an investigation by RCMP and Crown Counsel leading to two precedent setting cases by Canada's Provincial court in which the bullies were held accountable for their threats. Due to this and other similar cases, the term "bullycide" has been established.

Relational Aggression is discussed with a focus on female bullying. An interesting cultural component to the story is the role of Aboriginal Sentencing Circles, which were utilized in sentencing one of the bullies, since the victim and one of the accused were both Native, or First Nations. This form of Restorative Justice is beginning to gain wider appeal by legal systems around the globe. This exploration of actions and their consequences includes interviews with:

Cindy Wesley - Dawn-Marie Wesley's mother
D.J. Wesley - Dawn-Marie's brother
Randy Hawes - Member of the Legislative Assembly
Judge Jill Rounthwaite who presided over one of the trials
Kyla Mae Dunn - one of the bullies who was prosecuted
Paula Settee- Dawn-Marie's best friend
Kevin Gillies - a Fraser Valley news reporter
Lee Hanlon - a paralegal who assisted the victim's family
Karen McQuade - a co-founder of P.A.V.E.
Rosalind Wiseman - co-founder of the EMPOWER Program. She is also the author of "Queen Bees and Wannabes" the book which inspired Tina Fey to write the recent fictional comedy "Mean Girls".