The origins of "Pink Shirt Day" are not a professionally-designed, educator-condoned, carefully-managed media campaign. The first "Pink Shirt Day" occurred in a high school in Nova Scotia in 2007, where a group of students conspired to wear pink one day to support a boy who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school. These students worked together to send a clear message: bullying, homophobic or otherwise, would not be tolerated at their school. Their message was so inspiring that Anti-Bullying Day, or Pink Shirt Day, is now recognized across the country.
At Dr. A. R. Lord, the message this year is ACCEPTANCE. According to a study by Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, a professor in UBC’s Faculty of Education, increasing peer acceptance is key to preventing bullying. By simply asking students to think about how they can act kindly to those around them, “teachers can create a sense of connectedness in the classroom and reduce the likelihood of bullying.”
