RADIO PRESENTER:I believe we have someone on the phone line now. So hello, what's your name?
JOE:My name's Joe.
RADIO PRESENTER:Hello Joe, what's your story?
JOE:I called up to talk about the isolation I felt when I was bullied at school and cyberbullied as well.
RADIO PRESENTER:Why were you bullied?
JOE:I came out at school as being bisexual.
RADIO PRESENTER:And that's probably not something that the guys in the class were prepared for, were they?
JOE:No they didn't really expect it and didn't quite understand it either.
RADIO PRESENTER:And how exactly did you come out?
JOE:I'd gone through a period before I came out of being confused and thinking maybe it was just a phase and I'd grow out of it. And it kind of clicked one night in my head on a school trip that I was bisexual and there was no way of getting round that. I came out to a few close friends and then, when we got back I came out on Facebook just by ticking the 'interested in' boxes.
RADIO PRESENTER:And how did they initially start bullying?
JOE:It was, first of all it was shouting across the school and getting abuse thrown at me. It started online at about the same time.
RADIO PRESENTER:Were you being bullied at all before you came out?
JOE:No, not at all.
RADIO PRESENTER:It must have been horrible to suddenly, overnight almost, suddenly have people shouting nasty stuff at you in the classroom.
JOE:I felt very alone and very closed up. I spent a lot of time just sitting in my room not talking to anyone because I felt what the bullies were saying was true and that I was you know, a crime against nature, I was disgusting. I came back from school, and went online and then it was there as well, so there was no safe point almost.
RADIO PRESENTER:For those people who are listening and are finding it difficult to imagine what it was like, take us through what it was like to get those kind of messages and the effect it had on you.
JOE:The messages kept building up and building up, there was lots of them Because there was a lot of anger and pain inside of me I wanted to take it out on myself, because I felt like that was the right thing to do and there was a compass sitting on my desk鈥 I picked up the compass and I cut my arms.
RADIO PRESENTER:Take us through why it means, that seeing anonymous messages about bullying, results in you wanting to hurt yourself.
JOE:I was at such a low point, it felt right to take it out on myself. I felt incredibly down and very, very, very lonely and I absolutely hated myself for what I was, and I wished I was straight. It was an awful period of my life.
RADIO PRESENTER:Did you take that to your parents, during that time?
JOE:I didn't for a long time, it was just one night. It had been one of the regular days at school with the bullying there and online, and I came down to have dinner and I had forgotten to put on a jumper. So I'm sitting at the dinner table, with a t-shirt on and my mum and dad spotted these scratches on my arms from where I had been harming them with a compass, and my mum asked me what they were. First of all, I said it's probably best you don't know, and then so she asked again "And I really want you to tell me." And I broke down at the dinner table, and told them that I had been self-harming because I was bisexual and I was being bullied at school.
RADIO PRESENTER:Your mum, was she shocked? Was she horrified that her little son had done something like this? Or was she quite delicate about it?
JOE:My parents were amazingly supportive. My mum gave me the confidence that I needed to, to email one of the teachers that I trusted to get it all sorted. And now it's over, I feel so much better. But obviously there were the people who aren't so lucky.
JOE:There was a guy who I was following on twitter, who after he came out as gay to his mum he received so much abuse from his mum and bullying in general, he committed suicide.
RADIO PRESENTER:You were following someone who committed suicide?
JOE:Yeah, his last tweet was 'I'm so tired of all of this. I'm going in a few minutes just wanted to say goodbye.' And he drowned himself. After that happened, I knew that I didn't want to end up as bad as that.
RADIO PRESENTER:So I suppose, you have quite a message for the people who are listening to this because there are two different stories that end very, very differently and I suppose you've come out much more positive. So what's the difference?
JOE:I think the difference is that I took a lot of action against it, and if you don't talk to anyone about it then it's not going to get any better. And only when you start talking, can you start taking action against things.
RADIO PRESENTER:Joe, thank you so much for calling in with your story. I'm sure there will be lots of people listening to this, who might be going through exactly the same thing as you that will feel very encouraged about talking about it and maybe in some way, standing up to the bullies themselves.
JOE:Thank you.
RADIO PRESENTER:Thanks a lot, bye bye.
JOE:Bye bye.
RADIO PRESENTER:Thank you so much to everyone who's called in today. This evening's show was about hearing young people's experiences, and seeing how they've coped. When you're going through things, talking about it seems to be the hardest thing to do. Yet everyone we've spoken to today agreed if they'd had the chance to go back and do something differently, talking more is one of the things that would have done. Thanks a lot for listening. Bye bye.
A teenage boy called Joe is interviewed by 91热爆 radio presenter Aled Haydn Jones.
He describes his experiences of bullying after he came out as bisexual, and how he has dealt with it.
The radio show is fictional but the caller and his experiences are real.
This clip is from the series Coping.
Teacher Notes
Organise students into small groups.
Assign one group the role of a local radio DJ hosting a bullying phone in.
This group can be tasked with researching issues that affect teenagers, some relevant advice and assistance that can be offered to teenagers, and what guidance they might be able to give live on the radio.
The other groups can be assigned a problem or issue that might cause bullying.
Ask these groups to research their topic and prepare a list of questions that they could ask in a radio phone in.
Groups can take it in turns to interact with the students playing the radio DJ and receive feedback.
After all the groups have spoken, ask them to rate the quality of advice and help that they were offered.
Could the help be improved in any way?
Curriculum Notes
This clip is relevant for teaching Modern Studies and PSHE and Citizenship, in particular for Healthy Lifestyles and Mental and Emotional Health, at GCSE and National 4/5 level (Scotland).