Pink Shirt Day is a day for everyone –staff, students and families– to rally against bullying. Lee, VSB’s new District Resource Teacher for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) shares with us the significance of Pink Shirt Day.

“Pink Shirt Day began as a response to gender-based bullying in 2007, when a Grade 9 boy was targeted for wearing pink to school. Two allies in Grade 12 mobilized students to wear pink as a response to the bullying,” Lee says. “It is an opportunity to reflect on how staff and schools can continue to commit to ensuring students see themselves in the curriculum and in the staff.”

Across the District, schools are demonstrating the importance of taking a stand against bullying. Several schools shared how they participated in the day:

At Bruce Elementary, the theme for this year’s Pink Shirt Day is playing together.  In addition to their assembly, staff organized an event where students chose to go to different classrooms and have some unstructured play time. Armin Samiei , principal at Graham Bruce Elementary explains,“Students can choose to go to different classrooms where teachers lead a variety of activities such as making friendship bracelets or creating a ‘Be a Buddy, Not a Bully’ wall with kindness messages. Students will have an opportunity to play with peers that they don't usually interact with in a school day.”

L'École Bilingue the intermediate students demonstrated to younger students the importance of being a good friend in their Pink Shirt Day assembly.   Intermediate students performed poetry readings, storytelling, and skits to their younger counterparts. The anti-bullying skits helped students learn to work together, explore different characters, and foster imaginative thinking - all skills needed to foster empathy and collaboration.