It started with two teenagers standing up for a boy getting teased for wearing a pink shirt. Now it is a national campaign to end bullying.
Today is Pink Shirt Day.
Ten years ago, David Shepherd and Travis Price were two high school students in Nova Scotia when they noticed a younger boy getting picked on for wearing pink. The next day, Shepherd and Price organized a protest by wearing and handing out pink shirts to their peers.
“It was just a simple gesture,” says Price at today’s Pink Shirt event in Vancouver. “We thought if we could wear pink shirts, then this student would feel accepted.”
The Anti- Bullying Day was brought to British Columbia in 2008, from then on the last Wednesday in February would be known as Pink Shirt Day.
Local police showed off their pink power on social media:
BC Paramedics are also taking part in the anti-bullying day as well. All 4,000 BC Emergency Health Service employees, including supervisors, will be wearing pink badges.
Pink Shirt Day has now spread across 30 countries.
“It’s incredible to me, to see that a simple act of kindness has grown into all this,” says Price. “I just can’t believe it.”
According to a recent survey, three in four Canadians said they were bullied in school. Nearly half of the parents polled said their kids had been too.
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