97.3 Brisbane is leading the charge against bullying, and politicians have agreed to help. Will they be nice to each other in Parliament?

97.3FM began the ‘Say No To Bullying’ campaign in 2009, and now it has grown to a national day of action, with ARN’s Mix network supporting the anti-bullying movement across all its Mix stations.

Since 2009, Robin Bailey and Terry Hansen of 97.3FM’s breakfast team Robin, Terry & Bob, took the concept to the Queensland Government and then to the Federal Government and it is now recognised officially as ‘Say No To Bullying Week.’

March 15 is now the ‘National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.’

This week the 97.3 breakfast team put pressure on politicians from both sides of parliament to be nice to each other in the chamber, suggesting perhaps a few “please and thank you Mr Speaker” civilities wouldn’t go amiss in question time. Listen to how Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Garrett handled the request.

‘Say No To Bullying Week’ is an opportunity for schools, students, parents and the wider community to join together to make a public statement against bullying behaviour. The aim is to help educate parents and families on how they can take a stand together and help their children overcome bullying issues in all forms, at school, in the workplace and online, through acknowledging it’s a serious issue, hearing examples of others via case studies and fostering proactive and positive discussions on how to stop it.

Tomorrow, Robin, Terry & Bob will broadcast their breakfast show from the Cleveland District State High School. Channel 9’s Today will also broadcast nationally from the school throughout the morning.

The broadcast will be supported with a barbeque for the school with all teachers, students, and parents wearing their ‘Say No To Bullying’ wristbands or wearing the official ‘Say No To Bullying’ orange ribbon or orange clothing.

Each station in the MixFM network has a dedicated ‘Say No To Bullying’ page on their websites and tomorrow all sites will go orange to show their support.

Brisbane’s page is at www.973fm.com.au/bullying

During the week the breakfast team have highlighted high profile media personalities who have shared their experiences: Bryan McFadden, Magda Subanski, Will Anderson, Ross Noble, Josh Thomas and Dan and Danni from the Block.

Hear what Wil Anderson had to say about his experiences of being bullied.

Several callers to 97.3 talked of their experiences, including Kevin whose bullying experience led him to become a work place safety officer.  

The breakfast show also spoke with counselling experts from Kids Helpline and student leaders for mentoring younger students from Cleveland District  State High  School who are the pilot programme for taking in the first influx of Grade 7 students into High School.

97.3 is also encouraging listeners to write a letter to their bully explaining how they felt, why bullying is not okay and why they won’t stand for it. Alternatively, they are also asking bullies to write their own letters to someone they may have given a hard time, and to use this as an opportunity to make amends. Robin read her letter to her bullies on air this week, you can also read it here.

Across the rest of the Mix network, all states have supported the campaign:

MELBOURNE – Mix101.1

·         Breakfast co-host Katie ‘Monty’ Dimond (who is filling in for Chrissie Swan while she’s on maternity leave) told her story of how she was bullied at school, even changing schools because of it.

·         The founder of Don’tBully.com.au came on the show and spoke about the best steps to eradicate bullying from your community.

·         Actor Machala Bana from Winners and Losers came on the breakfast show and spoke about her horrific experience. She was bullied during high school, to the point where she was beaten up by her bully because the she thought Michala had a crush on the bully’s boyfriend. The bully then got Michala in a head lock, and forced the boy to cut off Michala’s ponytail, to prove that he didn’t like her. See the video of her interview here.

 
SYDNEY

·         Sami and Yumi are asking parents how they dealt with school bullies and discussing the best way to get a positive outcome for all children.

·         Super star Ed Sheeran shares his thoughts on bullying with the breakfast show on Friday, explaining that everyone has their own brand of weird – whether on the inside or out – and acknowledging and respecting this is the first step to stopping bullying.  

ADELAIDE

·         Wil Anderson (in town for the Adelaide Fringe Festival) came on the breakfast show and had some really interesting comments about focussing on teaching kids to embrace the kinds of things you’d be bullied over – that being “different” is ok and it are these differences that will make you become an interesting, unique and exciting person (aircheck attached)

·         The breakfast team spoke with a local girl Nikki who spoke of her difficulties being bullied by a family member and what steps she took to move on with her life.