Are You Wearing Pink? It's Pink Shirt Day!

Are you wearing pink today?

Pink Shirt Day started organically on a grassroots level. As the story goes, two Nova Scotia grade 12 students faced up to a bully who threatened a grade 9 student with homophobic slurs for wearing a pink shirt on his first day of school. The grade 12 students bought 50 pink shirts and handed them out to other students to wear in protest of bullying. Since this time, Pink Shirt Day has continued to grow in popularity across the country.

Unfortunately, bullying doesn’t just stop after childhood. Workplace bullying and emotional or physical abuse are two examples that have dire consequences.

Bullying statistics
A new survey about bullying conducted by Harris/Decima and commissioned by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada demonstrates just how far-reaching the effects of childhood bullying are. Thankfully, it also demonstrated that Canadians want more action to be taken on the issue of bullying, and that providing children with a positive mentor may be an effective way to reduce bullying. Check out Big Brothers Big Sisters for more details.

Of the Canadian adults polled:

• 50 percent said they were bullied as a child or teen
• Of these, 30 percent believe the abuse they suffered caused lasting harm, and 62 percent believe they would have benefited from having a volunteer adult mentor
• 95 percent believe people have a responsibility to take action to reduce bullying
• 89 percent think bullies pose a serious threat to the long-term well-being of children and teenagers

What you can do to stop bullying

• Wear pink on February 29 to show your support.
• Learn how to effectively deal with a bully with these steps. 
• Educate yourself, as well as your kids, on how to be safe online, as cyber bullying is continuing to be a serious problem. Facebook, email, and text messaging allow bullying to continue long after school hours.
• Check out pinkshirtday.ca for more details.