 Mike, tell us about the event tonight. The event is to bring awareness on bullying and, you know, get the word out that it affects the lives of the, it's become an epidemic. Do you have any statistics on how many children are bullied? Fifty-eight percent of the children are bullied today in one way or the other. And what constitutes bullying? A bully is an unequal amount of power. It's a power distribution problem where somebody has more power over somebody else and uses that power inappropriately against another person. What kind of effect on a child does bullying have? Well, you know, the effects can be everything from just demoralization to physical effects, but it certainly hurts their self-esteem. It hurts, you know, it could be shown in some of the academics that, you know, it could fail in school, it could bother them. There are tendons, you know, they don't want to be involved with any of the programs because of the bullying that's taken place. What about the longer-term sort of psychological effects? I've, in my experience, I've talked to elderly people, you know, into the sixties and seventies who can remember being bullied when they were in school. So this, they're lasting effects that take place that can affect someone's, for the rest of their life. And there's a new term, actually, today called bully side. You know, children are taking their lives today because of the horrendous amount of pain that they feel and discuss sometimes that they get from bullying, that they don't see any way out, that they actually take their own lives. What kind of things can be done to prevent bullying or to treat it once it's happened? I think number one is to become aware that it's taking place, that we have to admit that it's happening. Number two, once we admit and we acknowledge that it's taking place, you have the bully, you have the person being bullied, but you also have the people that are bystanders that are watching this take place. We need to affect and get in the bystanders involved in saying that this is a wrong, you know, if one person can come in and say, you know, we're not going to stand for that in this school. This is our school, we're going to take control of what happens here and create a positive environment for that person. Also with the bully, you know, bullies have been throughout years and years have been sent to detention. There's always been a negative consequence. You know, if we can do something that's a positive reinforcement rather than giving them detention, then the bully can actually learn from the behavior that they're conducting. What are some of the events and displays and booths that are here today? We have bikers against bullying right over here. We have the JD Foundation, which is right over here, which is a suicide awareness program. These are the three programs along with Keeping Kids Safe that this is going to benefit today. We have great entertainment from national recording artists, Jillian Jensen from the X Factor, Shannon Selig from North Yarmouth, who lives in Nashville now, the CEO of the comic book Archie is here, and so everybody has come together like communities ought to for a common goal. If people want more information about your program, where can they go? Welcome to, on our website, www.KeepingKidsSafe.us and our webpage is there. We have email and whole bio on myself and our founder, Mike O'Neill. Shannon, why did you get involved in the bullying issue? Well, I was bullied as a teenager and I feel it's very important to teach others that you can be different, you can be unique, you can be perfectly imperfect and love yourself and there's no need to knock others down to feel better about yourself. And so I hope to teach people that they can love themselves and love others as well. And you teach them through your music? I do. I teach them through my music and through my words, but mostly through my actions. I try to live by the golden rule of do unto others as you would have them do unto you and I try and show that as much as possible. What do you hear when you talk to kids about who have been bullied? Mostly it's the whole click issue, I don't fit in with them, I want to be a part of that group, the cool kid group. It genuinely seems to be the kids who have special talents or who excel, who strive for something greater, they tend to be singled out and I really want to show them that that's a great thing. Being different is a wonderful thing and I hope that they can appreciate that and realize that your flaws aren't necessarily flaws and that your greatest attributes can be highlighted and loved. Is that what perfectly imperfect means? Perfectly imperfect means that because I tell people I am so perfectly imperfect, mostly imperfect. I've learned to accept and love my flaws because there are some things in this life you can't change and you need to accept that and love yourself despite it. Love the little flaws that other people point out because that's who you are and you can't change it and so that's why I named my album perfectly imperfect to highlight that and express that we're all different and flawless in every single way. Do you see kids who have been bullied as having some hope for the future? I do. I definitely do. I think there is a big movement going on in the anti-bullying effort and I think all it takes is courage to know that you're not alone and it gets better. The real world and life doesn't really begin until you graduate high school. I've found that and you have fun as a kid and everything's great and then you might be bullied and you go through some hardships but you don't really find yourself until after all of that and you kind of need to go through some of that character building stuff and find yourself to get there and I hope that they can see that and realize that you know life only gets better you know later on. Representative Morris you sponsored an anti-bullying bill tell us a little bit about that. My second term in the house two years ago I sponsored LD 1237 an act to prevent bullying and cyberbullying in schools. This bill was designed to change the law a little bit and beef it up. There was current statute in the main law that defined bullying but I wanted to take it to the next level with cyberbullying and so forth and update the current policy and to make sure that our schools were implementing the policies that were passed years ago so my bill took a little while to pass it took a whole term to work it itself out and now it's become law and as of today is in schools and school boards throughout the state are trying to implement that policy. What were some of the factors that caused you to write the bill? What I saw was the situation getting worse bullying was getting was excessively getting worse over time over it was cyberbullying I noticed that every child has a cell phone now they have social media they have laptops so now that the tools are a lot more the students have more tools I knew that this situation was getting worse not better and I knew that and some students were afraid to go to school for the fear of their bully some students were just afraid to get a quality education and there was a they were tormented and I knew that I had to make a difference and I knew that this cause was not going to be just about me it's going to be about bringing everyone together and changing the conversation so I was glad to start it but I wanted to make sure that we casted a wider net and talk to all kinds of people school administrators people like here we are here we tonight with Betty Reynolds and what she's doing and all kinds of people that are going to be take a stand against this and change the conversations and change the dynamic Mike what are some of the things that kids can be taught in school to prevent bullying what we teach is we empower the children to like themselves and to say you know listen what you're going through right now if you're being bullied is is hell and I and I totally understand that but when you get to be 30 40 years old you're gonna look back in time and you're gonna forget about this and for the people that are being bolded what we teach the kids is listen when you graduate it's over the bullying stops and for the bullies when you go to the real world you know you're not gonna get a job if you're a bully people don't care about if you played sports they don't care what kind of club you're on they care of a good person that you were and how you and how you interact with people and in your house in Syria and that's the key to be successful in life we teach the kids that what about educating parents is there a component to that as well yes there is unfortunately right now with the parents you know some parents are in denial we go into a school system will teach a program and the parents are saying well my kid doesn't do that you know just because he's maybe popular and he plays sports they do bully and it's happening in every school system so we need to educate the parents the science to look for for being bullies if your kids coming home withdrawn doesn't want to participate in the family activities or he's he's you know a female who's stats wearing dark makeup and dark clothes and really reserve themselves and not talking that's a sign that there's something going on and we need to react on that and what can parents do in that situation should they be start talking to the child should they talk to the school what happens the parents first of all need to bring it to the school's attention absolutely and they also going to be positive and they're going to get involved in their child's life and be a positive influence in their child's life tell them that they're wonderful and that they're okay it doesn't matter if you're fat doesn't matter what kind of society you come from black white purple it doesn't matter you need to love your child and teach that to love and that's the key here we need to teach the kids that they're okay they don't have to get down to a size small because Abba Cromby's not offering you know extra large clothes it's not it's okay to be extra large it's okay to love yourself for who you are when you work with the children and they sort of go through this process what kind of change do you see well when when they go through our program and they see our videos that we play and we have a really in-your-face program we teach with the videos and also teach with a PowerPoint the videos of children talking situations they're being they were and excuse me and we also at the end we end with something very positive and the kids in power that and they look and they say yeah we want to be like that at the end the very positive video we want our school to be like that so and I should raise the hands and I asked them don't you want to have a school like that and they all say here so hopefully they walk away something positive so they see someone sitting on the side whose looks depressed go there say hi to them because you they could be thinking about committing suicide later on that night we don't you don't know so go it be a positive role model and say hi it's okay