Pink Shirt Day is February 24, 2021
Schools in the area will be spreading kindness this year on Pink Shirt Day.
All three school boards will take part in the annual anti-bullying initiative that takes place every year on Feb. 24.
Grade 12 student Lily Schaerer says the day is important to acknowledge every year.
“This started in 2007 in Nova Scotia when some grade 12 student saw a Grade 9 student being bullied for having a pink shirt,” she said. “That night the students went and bought a purchased a whole bunch of pink shirts and gave them out around the school.
“Now every year we have this day to promote anti-bullying in schools.”
Crescent Heights High School teacher Heather McCaig says the public schools in the area try to honour the meaning of Pink Shirt Day all year.
“We want to focus on kindness all year,” she said. “It’s great that we have a day to focus on bullying, but we want to keep these messages in mind all of the time.
“We always remind students that if they see acts of unkindness to report them so they can be dealt with properly. It doesn’t matter if it’s online or offline.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for that kind of behaviour.”
Students at Crescent heights will get to take part in a number of different COVID-safe activities.
“We’re going to have students write something kind they did on a sticky note, then they’ll get a prize for that act of kindness,” said Schaerer.
“On Pink Day we’re going to ask everyone to wear pink,” said McCaig. “We’re setting up an appreciation table and we will place around 300 of those sticky notes around the school. Those are shaped as little pink t-shirts.
“We’re going to be doing a draw for larger prizes as well.”Different schools will have different ways of celebrating the day, but the constant will be the pink t-shirts.
McCaig has been a teacher since 1995 and says the messaging is important.
“We need to continue to remind people that it is not OK to lash out against others,” she said. “We need to be kind to everybody and show care for everybody.
“We don’t always have to agree with everyone, but showing respect and care is a must.
“It’s so important for us to talk to our children about what kindness means.”