Vermilion Shows Support Against Bullying

Businesses, schools, and individuals across Vermilion marked Anti-Bullying Day by wearing a pink shirt in support of the cause.

The wave of pink originated in Berwick, Nova Scotia when twelfth-graders David Shepherd and Travis Price purchased and distributed 50 pink shirts to students in their high school after hearing of a ninth-grade boy being harassed with homophobic slurs for wearing a pink polo shirt on his first day of school. Spreading the message online with the code name “Sea of Pink,” the two rallied nearly 800 students in their 1,000-person school to wear pink the following day, affirming the student who had been bullied and effectively silencing the bullies themselves.

Shepherd and Price had contacted their school’s administration about their idea, but were warned that they could face expulsion if any fights broke out. Having experienced bulling himself, Price thought, “This will be the best fight I’m ever going to fight.”

Safe Canada estimates that nearly one in three children are bullied, while the Canadian Red Cross suggests that over half of bullying victims do not report the bullying incidents to a teacher. Students who are bullied once often continue to be bullied, compounding the psychological and sometimes physical harm. A study by the Yale School of Medicine in 2010 found a connection between being bullied and suicide, making anti-bullying an essential facet of healthy communities.

Businesses and individuals who wore pink to take a stand against bullying, and to encourage the celebration of diversity and self-expression felt a lot of pride to wear their pint shirts to show their support for the initiative.