Lift each other up – that was the message for Pink Shirt Day at schools across the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows School District on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
In addition to wearing pink shirts, students attended special assemblies and some schools held special events.
Students at Pitt Meadows Elementary helped officers from the Ridge Meadows RCMP detachment create a banner in honour of the day by dipping their hands in pink pain and decorating the banner with their hand prints.
The inspiration for the project came from a Pink Shirt Day T-shirt design, explained Cpl. Julie Klaussner with the Ridge Meadows detachment, a design by Corey Bulpitt, an artist from the Haida Na7ikun-Raven Clan, which shows a graffiti, Haida-style drawing of two hands at the bottom of the shirt.
“So we thought everyone’s hand prints are unique. We all are individuals but we all come together for Pink Shirt Day and to stop bullying,” explained Cpl. Klaussner.
Klaussner and Staff Sgt. Michelle Luca noted how important it is for their officers to be out in the community at events like this one.
“We always want to be accessible to all our youth and have them understand that this uniform is someone who’s there to support them and to help them and that it’s OK to come talk to us and if anything comes up we’re their biggest supporters for everything,’ said Klaussner.
Luca noted how small the community is in Pitt Meadows and how good it is for the students to get to know the police officers who work there.
“And these kids here even, they connected with one of the officers who was here and goes to their karate classes and actually does chats with them weekly,” she said.
“That’s what we’re looking for. Just that one-one-one connection with our community and with the kids especially,” added Luca.
Grade 5 students Lauryn and Havannah, both believe it is very important to recognize Pink Shirt Day.
“I think it is very important to show that we care about everyone,” said 10-year-old Lauryn.
Havannah said she was bullied a bit when she was younger and expressed who important it is to her now to make sure what happened to her doesn’t happen to other children.
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Principal Kyla Cameron noted how close the school is to the community policing station in Pitt Meadows and how they partner up with the officers for other activities as well so students are encouraged to make positive choices.
Cameron believes Pink Shirt Day is very important, especially the teaching of kindness.
“I absolutely think teasing can happen on a regular occasion,” said Cameron, who noted her school and others across the district use the W.I.T.S.’s program to teach students about anti-bullying and peer support.
It stands for: walk away; ignore; tell an adult; or seek help.
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“Pink Shirt Day really fits in with that. To try to bring awareness to acting kind to others. But also to bring awareness to, if you see it, to stand up and not let it happen,” she said.
In Maple Ridge, students at Kanaka Creek Elementary took turns holding signs of kindness along Kanaka Way, just outside their school.
Some notes read: “be the ‘L’ in Love!”, “Always believe in yourself”, “Be thankful”, “You Matter”, and “Be the ‘I’ in Kind”.
Principal Chad Raible said his school’s code of conduct has always included being kind, highlighted every Pink Shirt Day when students focus on ways they can be kind to the community.
“This year, we had an assembly where we saw and gave examples of practical ways we can be kind to each other. We also decided to share our kindness to our community by writing positive messages on signs and waving at passing commuters,” he said.
Pink Shirt Day takes place on the last Wednesday of February every year.
It started in 2007 in Nova Scotia, when school mates of a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied for wearing a pink shirt rallied to support him. They organized a protest by giving out pink T-shirts to all the students in their school.
Since then, the movement has grown into a national event to promote kindness and inclusivity towards others.
B.C. Premier David Eby remarked that everyone has a responsibility to stand up against bullying.
“The message of Pink Shirt Day is as relevant today as it was back in 2007, when two Nova Scotia high-school students stood up for a boy who had been teased for wearing a pink shirt,” he said about Travis Price and David Shepherd, who encouraged their classmates to wear pink to show their support for the student, starting the anti-bullying movement.
“We have made a lot of progress on addressing bullying since then, but we have much more work to do. Bullying remains a pervasive problem that has become even more insidious in the age of social media,” added the premier, citing the cases of 12-year-old Carson Cleland and a 14-year-old boy whose family has asked that his name not be shared, who took their own lives after becoming victims of online sexual extortion – in addition to the case of Amanda Todd, whose death by suicide drew global attention to cyberbullying and online sextortion.
“The loss of a child, especially under these circumstances, is unimaginable,” Eby said.