Pink Shirt Day – Bullying awareness campaign

Times Contributor    

 

Pink Shirts were seen all over East Wheatland and across Alberta on Feb. 27. Pink Shirt Day is becoming a worldwide event to bring awareness to bullying and its impact on people.

Principal Karen Smith at Standard School said, “every year more students and staff are participating in Pink Shirt Day at Standard School which speaks strongly about the school’s culture of acceptance and intolerance of bullying.”

Children from Grades 1 through 12 (boys and girls) along with their teachers wore many shades of pink to take part in the day.

Bullying comes in all shapes and sizes and it has infiltrated all aspects of society. People have been bullied since the dawn of time but the impacts have become greater and greater. People are bullied in the workplace, in relationships, in families and schools. 

Bullies use their words, their actions and all forms of media available to them. One sad thing is that bullies need to bully due to issues of power and control and low self esteem for themselves. In order to feel good about themselves or make themselves look better their need to “bring someone else down” becomes more and more prevalent.

The original event was organized by David Shepherd and Travis Price of Berwick, Nova Scotia, who bought and distributed 50 pink shirts after a male ninth grade student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt during his first day of school. Since then awareness has been brought to the forefront.

As of late the biggest problem in our society with regards to bullying has come through the various forms of mass media in our computer age of Facebook, Twitter and the availability of media to students through iPods, iPhones and Blackberrys.

Kudos to everyone, especially the schools in our communities for wearing pink and making the awareness of bullying and its impact on our society and kids a priority.