Jodie Vanderslot | Health Editor
Featured image: February 28 is Pink Shirt Day—let’s stop bullying together. | Courtesy of Pixabay
Think pink, and think before you post. This February 28 is Pink Shirt Day, a day which began in Nova Scotia in 2007 after a male grade nine student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. Two students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, organized a protest and started a movement to encourage students to wear pink and show their support for the boy as a way to stand up against bullying.
Bullying is any form of physical, verbal, social, or cyber force or aggression against another person. This can include physical force, verbal attacking, spreading rumours about a person, or exclusion—essentially, anything that threatens, embarrasses, intimidates, or damages another’s reputation or well-being in any way. Bullying creates a power imbalance, wherein the perpetrator exerts their power over the victim. In addition to any physical trauma incurred, bullying can result in serious emotional problems, including anxiety, low self-esteem, or depression.
Harassment is similar to bullying because it targets another individual through cruel, offensive, and insulting behaviours, but is also a form of discrimination, by treating a person differently based on certain characteristics. Bullying turns into harassment when the behaviour goes against Canada’s Human Rights Laws and people are treated differently due to their age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, family or marital status, or physical and/or mental disability. Pink Shirt Day reminds Canadians of the importance of standing up for one another and fighting stereotypes.
Pink Shirt Day has since become an annual event, inspiring others to wear pink to symbolize and stand in unity to promote a society that will not tolerate bullying anywhere. This year, the theme is centred around cyberbullying. Cyberbullying specifically uses electronic media to execute this bullying behaviour by harassing, impersonating, outing, cyberstalking, or denigrating through social media, texting, or other forms of digital technology.
As multi-media platforms and technologies continue to emerge and grow in use and popularity, safety needs to be prioritized, as do privacy and etiquette. This year’s Pink Shirt Day theme aims to spread the message of using technology’s power to spread kindness instead of negativity.
“Cyberbullying is a problem that affects 2/3 of young people. This year, #PinkShirtDay wants to show that #NiceNeedsNoFilter,” reads the campaign’s Twitter feed.
Each year, the event grows and fundraising increases. Last year, the donations received made it possible for Pink Shirt Day to support programs that impacted more than 59,300 youth and children.
For each #PinkItForward hashtag, Coast Capital will donate $1 to Pink Shirt Day in support of bullying prevention programs for youth in British Columbia.
