It started in Canada but has spread world-wide. The annual pink shirt campaign was designed to stamp out school bullying. Now as students across the country gear up for the big day on Wednesday, Feb. 22, a Kelowna school has received a huge boost in its efforts to stop bullying.
“We can make a difference, each and every one of us,” pink shirt day co-founder Travis Price said.
Price was the guest speaker at a special assembly at Rutland Senior Secondary in Kelowna on Monday. He and friend David Shepherd started pink shirt day in 2007 after witnessing a younger student being bullied at their Nova Scotia high school for wearing the colour pink.
“We came with the idea that if we wore pink shirts and got other people to wear pink that they wouldn’t be able to bully all of us,” Price said. “Luckily for us, our school got behind us and out of 1000 (students), about 850 people wore pink the next day, it was incredible and pink day started.”
Price is no stranger to bullying himself. He suffered years of verbal and physical agony at the hands of bullies.
“I see pink shirt day as a way that saved my life,” Price said. “It gave me passion, it gave me a mission, it gave me an idea, something I wanted to do with my life, to be that voice for the kids that lost theirs is very powerful for me.”
Price says while pink shirt day is raising a lot of awareness, bullying is still a very serious issue, one that has claimed lives like that of Amanda Todd. Todd was the 15-year-old Port Coquitlam girl who killed herself in 2012 after posting a YouTube video describing how she was tormented by bullies.
“To the ones who witness bullying, I want to tell them today they can be someone’s hero and that there is a hero inside everyone but bullying is a choice,” Price said. “You can choose to do something for it like stand up against it or you can choose just to walk away and do nothing. When we make the right choice and we stand up against it, that is when we make a difference in our communities and our schools, that is when we start seeing bullying go away.”
Price encourages everyone to buy their pink shirt at London Drugs or online at www.pinkshirtday.ca. Proceeds go towards anti-bullying initiatives across B.C. including Red Cross’s ‘Beyond the Hurt Program’ where youth are trained to teach other youth.
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