Orange County Public Schools are teaming up with the Zebra Coalition, an organization that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in an effort to keep more kids safe.

Tormented and beat-up, 18 year old Frankie Shine, a gay teen, lived in fear for years after being bullied on a regular basis.

Shine showed News 13 the scars near his eye and on his arm and said he would regularly get beat up and come home with a bloody face. “I tried to hide it from my parents.”

Shine said bullies targeted him for years because he is gay so he moved to Orlando just to get away from the bullies.

Statistics from the National School Climate Survey show about 80 percent of gay students say they’ve been harassed because of their sexual orientation.

“It made me feel less of myself.  It made me feel depressed,” said Shine.

To prevent other kids from feeling depressed the Zebra Coalition and the Orange County Public Schools have expanded their anti-bullying campaign.

Right now the campaign is in over 100 middle and high schools and for the first time they’ve moved into the charter schools.

Posters hang in all the schools encouraging everyone to stand up to bullying. The posters also have an HQ code at the bottom so anyone who needs help can put their smart phone up to the code and find resources.

They are also holding more workshops with staff on how to stop bullying. "What we try to do it encourage everyone from students to teachers, to parents to really get involved and not ignore, and to take action and to provide support to everyone,” said Zebra Coalition Executive Director Dexter Foxworth

Although the program is focuses helping gay teens that are bullied, Foxworth said the program can really work to help any student that’s being bullied. “We want to create a safe and welcoming environment for those students.”

Shine said being bullied has been tough, but an experience he learned from and now has advice for others. "Don’t sit there and keep it bottle in.  Don’t be scared and don’t just hold stuff in.”

He now has a fresh start and is excited to finish up his senior year of high school.

According to the National School Climate Survey, 9 out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students hear homophobic remarks constantly and 4 out of 10 report being physically harassed.

Zebra Coalition leaders said they want to help the victims, but they also want to help the bullies to understand why they are treating other people like this.