Thirteen years ago, a boy in Grade 9 wore a pink shirt to school and was bullied for it. Two students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, got their friends together and came to school the next day, all wearing pink shirts in support of this bullied boy.
In an interview, Price said, “I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders. Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.”
Since that time, Pink Shirt Day (which was Feb. 26) is marked across Canada by many schools and communities, including all of the elementary schools in Weyburn and across both school divisions, and the students will gather on Friday for a performance by Sask Express for a Pink Shirt Day concert at the
Cugnet Centre, and at St. Michael School.
The whole theme of this day is to raise awareness of the harm that bullying can do to a person’s self-esteem, even driving some people to kill themselves out of despair, from the deep mental anguish and pain caused by bullying.
The basic definition of bullying is that it is a form of aggression where there is a power imbalance, where one person victimizes another, whether it’s physically, verbally, mentally, emotionally, or a combination of those factors.
With the widespread use of smartphones in the hands of virtually every young person in junior and senior high school on up to adults, cyberbullying has also become a problem.
Through the anonymity of the phone or tablet, they are used to threaten, intimidate, embarrass or shun someone, or to damage a person’s reputation by sending embarrassing photos or threatening texts.
In some ways, cyberbullying can be worse than in person, because people can text or go on social media 24/7 and relentlessly harass or threaten someone.
There are steps people can take to stay safe online, and for young people, the cardinal rule of “Think before you post” ought to be ingrained into every child’s mind before they are allowed to have their own phone.
Pink Shirt Day is a great idea as an anti-bullying initiative, and it gets everyone involved at the school level, but make no mistake, bullying is still going on. Perhaps we’re more aware of instances of bullying because we’re hearing about it more, but until people stand up for those who are being bullied, it will continue to be a problem for children and adults alike.
Sometimes it will be hard to stand up if someone who has authority or power is doing the bullying — but it needs to start somewhere. More importantly, standing up for a bullied person needs to happen all year round, every day, and not just on the day when people are wearing pink shirts.
