IMHO

TEXTS AGAINST BULLYING “One of the newest anti-bullying measures being adopted by schools is the use of texting.” For example, “Tip Txt, originally developed in Great Britain,” has been adapted by the U.S. company Blackboard “for use in K–12 schools. Kids can text reports of bullying or questions about reporting it,” and the information can be “screened and handled by school officials. Blackboard is currently offering the application free to every school district in the country.”

“To date, one hundred seventy-five districts have signed up for the service,” including “the Boston Public Schools. According to Jodie Elgee, director of the BPS’s Counseling and Intervention Center, ‘We wanted to meet students where they were. We felt that using texting was a way to both cut down on our response time to reported bullying incidents and also to empower kids.’”

—Julie Dobrow, director of Tufts’ communications and media studies program, on huffingtonpost.com

HISTORY ON THE BIG SCREEN Lee Daniels’ The Butler possesses “the uneven hit-or-miss quality of most historically driven cinema.” One of the greatest disappointments is the portrayal of the Black Panthers, who come off as “a group of sloganeering radicals (with large, over-the-top Afros) rather than perhaps the most important group of revolutionaries America has ever produced.”

Still, The Butler is worth seeing, mainly “for the large swaths of history that it gets right. The film’s observant, subtle narration of the civil rights movement’s heroic period,” especially the lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides, is “pitch perfect.”

—Peniel Joseph, Tufts professor of history, on indiewire.com

MEET THE PATHOLOGISTS “With the information gleaned from sequencing the human genome,” medical science is “beginning to unravel the mysteries of cancer and other diseases.” We pathologists “have been key players in this discovery pipeline.” Also, we discuss “treatment plans with every kind of doctor: primary care, surgeons, oncologists, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, and more. Pathologists are quarterbacks, calling each play, just as in football.” Yet we often remain unknown to patients.

“It doesn’t have to be that way. You can request a meeting” with your pathologist, instead of just hearing about the results of your lab tests from your doctor. “It will be an enlightening experience,” helping you to understand your medical needs and make good decisions. And if your health insurance won’t pay for such a meeting, know that pathologists are working to fix that. We “are advocating to make our consultations with patients billable, like a patient’s consultations with any other specialists. Pathologists are taking on new roles, and the system needs to change to reflect” that.

—Michael Misialek, assistant clinical professor of pathology, Tufts School of Medicine, on WBUR’s CommonHealth