This is an international day of support for tolerance and embracing diversity. The story of Pink Shirt Day was shared by one of our students, Raffa, at our recent learning celebration: two students in Canada in 2007 witnessed a Year 10 student being bullied for wearing a pink item of clothing to school. To take a stand against this, they bought dozens of pink shirts and distributed them to their classmates to wear to school the next day. The word got out online and hundreds of students wore pink to school as a show of support. Pink Shirt Day has been celebrated in New Zealand since 2009.
On Friday at Amesbury School the day was overflowing with support from students against bullying, with many of them wearing a pink item of their choice, including the official "Pink Day Shirts" from Cotton On as well. Our students were educated on how to be upstanders, filled in compliment cards, designed their own pink day t-shirt on templates, painted their faces pink and participated in a chalk drawing competition as well. Each of these activities were kindly managed by volunteers from the Kaitiaki Fundraising Team in Pōhutukawa.
Overall, it was a really positive day, students were brimming with curiosity in how to be involved in the purpose of the day and embraced the purpose of the day with a full smile and lots of support.
Written by Gar Kee Wu
