Wearing pink has always symbolized showing support for people with cancer, but now it has taken on another new meaning.
Pink Shirt Day has swept the nation, symbolizing that students in high schools across Canada won’t stand for bullying.
Wearing pink on Feb. 25 started after a Grade 9 Central Kings Rural High School student in Nova Scotia was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school, and it wasn’t long before someone decided to step up.
Two fellow students went to their local discount store and purchased over 50 pink shirts and sent a message out to schoolmates that very night.
The next morning David Shepherd and Travis Price stood in the foyer with a bag full of shirts in their hands, and gave out pink shirts to anyone who was willing to wear it proudly.
The pink shirts were a way of protesting against bullying, and acted as a voice of sympathy for the bullied student.
What made it all worth it, the students said in an article, was seeing the bullied student’s face when he walked through the door.
A Globe &Mail article quoted Price saying that it was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Barrhead Composite High School has taken on this tradition, and on Feb. 25 the school will be a sea of pink to show support for students who are bullied.
The school will host a series of events throughout the week, as a way of saying bullying is not okay at their school, and as a way of educating their students on the affects of bullying.
For some, bullying can feel like a weight on their spirit or soul, and without the help of someone else, they may not be able to release the burden completely.
For the past few weeks BCHS has been advertising Pink Shirt Day, and has shared the story of where it all began.
Pink Shirt Day doesn’t only remind us that bullying won’t be tolerated; it also reminds us that when two people care enough deeply, great things can be accomplished.
