Pink was a-plenty at Cedar Elementary School.
Not only were students wearing pink shirts, but so were the school’s staff.
“We created these shirts that were drawn by our elder Qwaya Sam, and we have our animal virtues. So we picked the hummingbird with the message of being kind rather than focusing on anti-bullying,” says Mary Deagle, a kindergarten teacher at Cedar.
Deagle says they decided to pick “Be kind” as the main message for this year’s Pink Shirt Day because everyone can be kind and focus on the positive, instead of the negative.
“Being kind every day is as simple as giving someone a smile and just the things we can do to help others and make the world a better place instead of worrying about the word bullying,” she says.
Pink Shirt Day was founded in Nova Scotia by two Grade 12 students in 2007 after a fellow student was bullied for wearing a pink polo shirt. Since then, Pink Shirt Day has become an annual event in Canada, observed on the last Wednesday of February.
“I think it’s a great reminder to us to be kind to others and to take a step back and think of the problems others might be going through,” says Deagle. “We discuss that in kindergarten. Somebody might be feeling sad. That’s why they might seem mad or say angry words, and we can be just kind or ask them what they need… I think just putting kindness in the world makes it a better place.”
