Pink Shirt Day sparks anti-bullying initiatives across School District 60

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Nearly every school in School District 60 is participating in Pink Shirt Day on Wednesday, encouraging students and staff to wear pink or engage in other events.

The international movement began after a small act of kindness in Nova Scotia in 2007, where two boys banded together to wear pink to protest the bullying of a new student who wore the colour.

At Bert Bowes Middle School, leadership teacher Chancellor White says the school has been focusing on spreading the message of anti-bullying throughout February.

White says for Pink Shirt Day on February 28th, they have organized the third anti-bullying awareness basketball game.

Grade 9 students on the Bert Bowes Bulldogs basketball team will face school staff this year.

“It’s an all-afternoon type of ordeal. Everybody wears pink,” White said. “We do a halftime show, with some leadership [students] for an activity surrounding the whole message of teamwork and working together.”

White says for every point scored by either team, that’s how much the leadership class will donate to the national Bullying Ends Here charity.

His leadership class ordered 50 hoodies and t-shirts to wear and hand out to those participating in the activities. 

The anti-bullying month started with a bake sale in the first week of February.

White says they raised money to support the Bullying Ends Here charity’s initiatives and hands-on work.

“We’re donating, just from the bake sale alone, over $500 to the foundation,” White said.

During the second week of February, the school had spirit week, focusing on random acts of kindness, pink accessories, compliment day, and Valentine’s Day candy grams.

“We also look at the idea that Pink Shirt Day and being kind should be every day,” White said.

Throughout the rest of School District 60, including Charlie Lake, Taylor and Hudson’s Hope, nearly all schools encourage students and staff to wear pink, while some will hold assemblies or talk about anti-bullying in individual classes.

Baldonnel Elementary School is holding an assembly focusing on kindness and will ask students to take a “kindness pledge.”

Robert Ogilvie Elementary School is also focusing on kindness with an assembly on Wednesday morning and pink t-shirts in the halls called “Hanging Together in Kindness” with student messages.

According to Pinkshirtday.ca, one in five kids is affected by bullying, but over 110 countries participated in Pink Shirt Day 2022.