Our BUC Youth Worker Joanna arrived at work today wearing a pink shirt. The kids had reminded her that today is ‘Pink shirt Day” and she should dress accordingly!
Pink Shirt Day was started by two incredible high school students in Nova Scotia. They saw a Grade nine boy being bullied by other kids because one day he wore a pink shirt. Instead of joining the bullies or watching from the sidelines these two guys went out and bought 50 pink tank tops and handed them out to other students. They said that when the grade nine boy walked into the school and saw all these other students in pink shirts the look on his face said it all. “It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. The bullies were never heard from again.”
That was in 2007 and six years later their simple action has turned into a day of awareness, education and fund-raising for anti-bullying programs for children, youth and adults. Pink Shirt Day is a day to say it is not okay to pick on, threaten, socially isolate or otherwise purposely harm another person. Bullying is still a major problem in schools and in the workplace. Statistics prove that bullying happens to a child on the playground in Canada every seven minutes. When peers step in to intervene the bullying is likely to stop within ten seconds. Several of the youth in our church tell of being bullied at school.
Sometimes it can be hard to take a stand but what a difference it can make in the lives of someone feeling vulnerable. In the Christian faith there is a teaching, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We call it the Golden Rule and it appears in various forms in all the world religions. Pink Shirt day is putting the golden rule into a practical application and saying to all around bullying is not okay.
