Pink Shirt Day shows support for those who are bullied
Today we celebrate Pink Shirt Day in Canada, and thousands of students, teachers, administrators, and trustees will wear pink shirts to show support for anyone in our schools who has experienced any form of bullying. Pink Shirt Day encapsulates the societal themes of acceptance, appreciating diversity, and treating everyone in our schools and communities with kindness. Our schools emphasize creating safe and caring learning environments, and this phrase isn’t one any teacher, school leader, or system administrator makes or takes lightly.
Over the years, many schools in our division have invited presenters from the Dare to Care bullying prevention program to help our students, parents, and staff members learn about what bullying is and how to take planned and purposeful steps to eliminate it.
Kindness is always essential, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect and learn in an environment free from bullying.
All of the schools in our division make significant efforts to create safe and caring learning environments for students and help teach them how to navigate conflict and advocate for themselves when they encounter bullies.
In today’s ultra-connected society, bullying is no longer limited to inperson interactions. It has become commonplace for nearly every junior high and high school student to have access to a cell phone or tablet; meaning bullies now have access to their targets 24/7.
Sadly, according to the Pink Shirt Day website, over 60 per cent of youth have faced bullying over their cell phones or online, and three out of ten bullied students reported missing school at least once during the year because of cyberbullying.
It is heartbreaking that so many of our students will experience virtual cyberbullying at some point during their formative education years.
The www.pinkshirtday.ca website is an excellent resource for kids, parents, and families dealing with traditional bullying and virtual cyberbullying. This website lists four actions for our teens to follow when cyberbullies target them. STOP talking to the bully. BLOCK the caller/messenger.
TALK with an adult about what you’ve been experiencing. SAVE all messages and emails from the bully to show an adult or law enforcement officials. These four simple steps create an excellent opportunity for parents to start meaningful conversations that will equip their children with the tools they need to help them deal with this ugly side of technology. If students are experiencing traditional verbal bullying in schools, encourage them to talk with a trusted teacher, counsellor, or school administrator. The Pink Shirt Day website offers various other tools, resources and supports to assist families.
Our division was lucky to have Collin Kartchner, motivational speaker and founder of the #SavetheKids movement, present to parents and students in 2019. Sadly, Collin passed away in 2020, but his message about the harmful effects of social media, cell phones, and cyberbullying still carries on. I encourage all parents to view his YouTube messages and listen to his podcasts to learn more about helping their children navigate bullying in the digital world.
While visiting some of our Westwind Schools recently, I encountered several bulletin boards sharing an important message from Bryan Skavnak, founder of Be the Nice Kid. It’s a message I believe everyone should hear — adults and students alike.
He says, “some kids are SMARTER than you. Some kids have cooler clothes than you. Some kids are better at sports than you. IT DOESN’T MATTER. You have your thing too. Be the kid who can GET ALONG. Be the kid who is GENEROUS. Be the kid who is HAPPY for others. Be the kid who DOES THE RIGHT THING. Be the nice kid.”
The golden rule of treating others like we would want to be treated starts with us, the parents.
As adults, we need to be the change we wish to see in society and begin by modelling the kind of citizens we want our children to become.
Stopping bullying isn’t solely a school issue to address, fix, and solve. It’s one that requires us all to demonstrate appropriate behaviour both in-person and online if we want any real chance of making a difference in eliminating bullying.
Darren Mazutinec is the superintendent of Westwind School Division.