Pink Shirt Day 2024

Mackenzie Broomfield
Feb 28, 2024
2 min read

TW: This article makes mention of suicide and murder. Please take care while reading.

🩷 #pinkshirtday is a day dedicated to raising awareness and taking a stand against bullying. 🩷

Did you know that Pink Shirt Day began in Canada?

In 2007, two grade nine students in Nova Scotia organized a protest and wore pink in support of a fellow student who had been bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Their movement is now celebrated across the globe!

According to pinkshirtday.ca, as many as one in five kids are affected by bullying. They define bullying as "...a form of aggression where there is a power imbalance; the person doing the bullying has power over the person being victimized." Knowing that someone's behaviour is more about them than it is about the other person, we know that bullying behaviour is about the bully, not about the bullied. A person typically bullies another person due to their own lack of self-esteem and self-worth, and out of a desire to feel more important. Regardless of the reason, bullying is never okay.

Pinkshirt.ca lists forms of bullying as:

physical: using physical force or aggression against another person (e.g., hitting)
verbal: using words to verbally attack someone (e.g., name-calling)
social/relational: trying to hurt someone through excluding them, spreading rumours or ignoring them (e.g., gossiping)
cyberbullying: using electronic media to threaten, embarrass, intimidate, or exclude someone, or to damage their reputation (e.g., sending threatening text messages).

In addition to any physical trauma incurred, bullying can result in serious emotional problems, including anxiety, low self-esteem, or depression. In extreme cases, as in the case of Amanda Todd and Tyler Long, the distress and trauma of being bullied has led to a beautiful young human taking their own life. More distressing, as with the case of Reena Virk and, very recently, Nex Benedict, physical bullying has led to the murder of a beautiful young human by their own peers.

🩷 If you are experiencing bullying in your own life, please believe that there is nothing wrong with you, and know that you are not alone and there is help. Nation-wide you can access the Crisis Helpline by dialing 9-8-8, and Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. 🩷