Following a failed appeal of the rating, the Weinstein Company released the film unrated in theaters in the United States on March 30, 2012.

The film documents the lives of several public-school students and their families in Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma during the 2009-10 school year.

He mentions that Tyler's peers would demoralize him verbally and do things like taking his clothes when he showered, forcing him to leave naked, and shoving him into lockers.

He states that, due to the town's religious and societal beliefs, he no longer feels welcome, and was once even hit by a group of boys in a minivan, who accelerated into him as he was walking down the road.

During the school year, Kelby's peers bully and ignore him, and he quit playing basketball due to the verbal abuse of his teammates.

An honor student and talented basketball player with plans to join the Navy in order to help her mother, she was repeatedly harassed by her peers.

After a brief standoff, she was tackled to the ground by another student and arrested by the police, and she is now incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility and facing felony charges for kidnapping and assaulting everyone on the bus.

Trey later explains that he used to be a bully, but as he got older he realized the harm and hurt he did to people, and mentions that when he would try to stand up for Ty, the latter would always tell him that, "it's not worth it", or, "be better than them."

Ty's father creates an online anti-bullying group called Stand for the Silent and helps to arrange rallies all over the country, and some internationally.

[10] He continued his discussion of the subject in an interview with a Twin Cities news website after the screening, saying: "I felt that the hardest part of being bullied was communicating, and getting help.

Hirsch said he hoped the film would inspire advocacy, engagement, and empowerment, not just in people who are being bullied and in their families, but also in those who, all too often, stand by and do nothing.

[16] The filmmakers lost, by one vote, an appeal to get the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to lower the film's rating from R (due to some language) to PG-13.

However, AMC announced it would allow the film in its theaters and even let minors watch it upon receipt of a signed permission slip from a parent or guardian.

[20] At the time of the film's initial theatrical release on March 30, 2012, it had been rated PG in six of Canada's ten provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan), and so had warnings about the coarse language, but no age restrictions.

[23] After removing some of the profanity, the film received a new rating of PG-13 (for intense thematic material, disturbing content and some strong language—all involving kids), which meant that children of all ages could watch it without an adult.

"[29] The film was referenced in the South Park episode "Butterballs", particularly a scene in which Kyle asks Stan, who created an anti-bullying documentary: "If this video needs to be seen by everyone, why don't you put it on the Internet for free?"