It warmed my heart to read that a local high school had a Pink Day to combat bullying.
Even the tough boys showed their support by wearing bright pink. The anti-bullying movement started on the east coast when a teenage boy was bullied on his first day of school because he wore a pink shirt. Another boy noticed and gathered 50 pink shirts which they all wore to school the next day, to take a stand. Last year the Thames Valley District School Board got behind a pink day. This year some schools have been doing it on their own.
I was bullied in school. Lots of kids were. Those times of feeling helpless and at the mercy of another bigger, stronger, angry kid stay with you forever. My memory of this particular boy sitting on me after he pushed me down into the snow, and punching my head, time after time, will never go away! Back then, my classmates recoiled in fear and ostracized me. They didn’t want to end up in the line of his fire and I don’t blame them. But these kids today are saying, oh yeah, you think you’re so tough? Try taking on a whole SCHOOL of us! It’s a show of force that demands that the bullies recede. Some fool wrote on the Free Press comments page that wearing pink just makes them a bigger target for bullying. Um, hello? That’s the point! They’re saying – and showing – that they can wear whatever they want and there is no reason that’s good enough to warrant getting picked on for it. It’s a show of force on the side of good. Good and pink.