For 2010 we decided to move from our usual “last Wednesday of February” date for Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day in order to avoid conflicting with the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games scheduled for late February and early March of 2010.

This way we ensure we get as much media focus and participation as possible from our home base of Vancouver, BC.

So mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 14, 2010 when we hold our Third Annual Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day.

For 2010,  Boys & Girls Clubs across Canada will be participating in Pink Shirt Day and we anticipate adding more partners to make this the biggest anti-bullying awareness day in North America - if not the world!

Here is a PDF document you can share with your school, business, etc.

Stay tuned for more details.

Help spread the news that BULLYING STOPS HERE with these 8.5″ x 11″ and 11″ x 17″ PDF version posters.

Hang it up in your classroom, workplace, in the window of your business or wherever you think people will see the sign and know that on February 25th to wear pink.

Click HERE to download the letter size (8.5″ x 11″) poster and click HERE to download the ledger size (11″ x 17″) poster.

Just $5 for this great shirt to support the 2010 Pink Shirt Day with all proceeds going to Boys and Girls Clubs.

For schools or organizations wishing to place bulk orders (more than 20 shirts), please call 1 (604) 879-6554 Monday through Friday 8:30am to 5pm Pacific Time.

The T-shirts will also be available through our retail partner, London Drugs, which will be carrying a complete range of sizes in all their stores throughout Western Canada, starting March 17th. This is a great way for you to save the postage cost and wait time for shipping. For more information CLICK HERE (coming soon).

Orders received after April 5th may not be delivered to arrive before Pink Shirt Day on April 14th using regular post. We can make arrangements for priority post at your cost.

Visit our on-line store to place your order!

Press Release:

PROVINCE DECLARES ANTI-BULLYING DAY

VANCOUVER - The Province is proclaiming Feb. 25 as Anti-Bullying Day to support efforts to end bullying behaviours in schools and communities across the province, Premier Gordon Campbell announced today.

“School districts, schools, families and communities are working together to create an environment of respect and are making our schools and streets safer,” said Premier Campbell. “All across British Columbia, parents, teachers and students and community members are taking a stand against bullying and saying that no one should ever be made to feel intimidated, afraid or discriminated against.”

The Ministry of Education has developed a resource for parents that will be distributed to all public, independent and band schools to help families better understand their shared role in bullying prevention. The parent resource brochure and Internet safety tips are published in 14 languages and can be found online at www.bced.gov.bc.ca/sco/.

All 60 school districts have codes of conduct in place reflecting the legislation passed in the fall of 2007. This step fulfills a commitment to institute “zero tolerance” of bullying in B.C. schools. School districts across the province have set up student web forums, introduced anti-bullying programs facilitated by local police and community groups, and have made information available through school district websites to help parents deal with children who are either bullied or being bullies.

“Feb. 25 is a day we can all stand up together and take a stand against bullying,” said Education Minister Shirley Bond. “We all have responsibility to ensure schools are safe places to learn. Students can help by standing for their classmates, parents can help by talking openly with their children about acting in a respectful way towards others, and schools can help by holding students accountable for their actions.”

Anti-Bullying Day highlights British Columbia’s commitment to being a safe and inclusive province and is an opportunity to actively promote respectful and kind behaviour among citizens. It recognizes efforts to build communities that foster respect, fairness, equity and compassion, and to celebrate the actions of individuals, schools and communities to address bullying, harassment and intimidation.

“I want to thank CKNW and Christy Clark for being a leader in helping promote Anti-Bullying Day in B.C.,” said Premier Campbell. “We can all play a role in making British Columbia a safer place to live.”

Anti-Bullying Day complements the Province’s beliefs that a healthy environment and educated populace are essential to healthy human development, and that a safe, humane society is the outcome of an enlightened and caring community.

We invite you to join the organizers of Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day for a “wrap party” at The Roxy in Vancouver on February 25th.

We will be decking out the club in Pink and feature Pink drinks. We’re also getting some EXCITING entertainment - more info to follow.

The first 260 people who come to the club before 10pm will get a FREE Pink Anti-Bullying T-shirt with their $7 cover charge.  100% of the cover charge goes to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver!

For more info, visit the Facebook Event Page or write to info@pinkshirtday.ca.

The Roxy is located at 932 Granville Avenue in Vancouver, BC.

Bullying Stops Here!

The next Wear Pink Anti-Bullying Day will be on Wednesday, February 25, 2009.  Stay tuned for more information on how you, your school and/or business can get involved.

Annie Lyles is a manager at Prevention Institute in Oakland, a nationwide non-profit dedicated to improving community health and well-being.

“One of the interesting parts about this situation (at Cheesecake Factory) is the connection between bullying, male violence and bystanders,” she said. “Having an environment that has norms where people are respected in the workplace prevents things like this happening.”

Research shows that if a bystander says something, bullying generally stops within 90 seconds and doesn’t recur, she said.

“There are all sorts of amazing research about the power of the bystander and the power of supervisors to really set standards,” Lyles said. “In this case, there was a key opportunity for a bystander to support the individuals who were being persecuted, really. That’s a huge failure of the environment.”

Every culture has aspects of violence as well as aspects of respect, she said.

“It’s easy to say this was cultural, but there are plenty of people of Mexican descent who are not violent,” she said. “In terms of why would men do this, I would say when there’s an environment that allows and fosters one group to oppress another, that environment lets it grow.”

Lyles said that good people who might not otherwise participate in egregious behavior can be caught up and let an environment influence their behavior, she said.

“Policies are very important, and workplace norms are very important to keep people on the right track,” she said. “It’s the responsibility of the workplace to set an environment where people feel respected and can go about their jobs without fearing for their safety.”

She does not fault the alleged victims at the Cheesecake Factory for not simply quitting their jobs, and she understands they may have felt conflict about quitting.

“When you’re thankful to have a job in this economy, it becomes a balance of your own well-being versus your economic well-being.”

From azcentral.com.

This Facebook page declared Nov. 20 'Kick a Ginger Day.' (Facebook)

Another story of abuse has emerged in B.C. as a result of a Facebook campaign to kick redheads — and this time it was a teacher’s own brother who was targeted.

A Facebook group, declaring Nov. 20 as “Kick a Ginger Day,” encouraged people to kick their redheaded peers.

The Facebook group was likely inspired by South Park, a satirical, animated TV show that aired an episode dealing with prejudice, focusing on one character’s hateful attitude toward redheads.

Prince Rupert Secondary School teacher Tulani Ackerman told CBC News her younger brother, who goes to high school in the Kootenays, was kicked in the groin by a number of students and fled the school out of fear.

“My mother stated that he had been a victim to it, and that he felt so unsafe in his school because kids were kicking him that he left school and that he felt so unsafe going out that night without somebody with him,” Ackerman said.

She said the incident shows that anti-bullying messages aren’t getting through to some kids.

“It’s as though they’re in that mob mentality where they would not do it if they were by themselves,” Ackerman said.

“They get caught up in the energy of it and they just move with it. The scary thing about when kids get caught up in the movement of something is they have no idea of the impact on that child that has had to go home because they’ve been kicked.”

She and her class have decided to dye their hair red on Nov. 27, a week to the day of the event, to denounce the violence.

Incidents throughout B.C., Alberta

The president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation is urging teachers around the province to use the incident to talk about the effects of bullying.

“Some kids will excuse it on the grounds of ‘it’s just a joke, it’s not that serious,’ but I think when you really get into that discussion with kids, the vast majority of them will come to the conclusion, at the end of the day, that nothing that harms other people should be acceptable in a society,” Irene Lanzinger said.

The advantages of Facebook and other internet tools outweigh the disadvantages, she said, but constant education on their use is vital.

The Facebook campaign saw incidents of bullying and abuse throughout B.C. and Alberta.

Twenty students from Journey Middle School in Sooke, B.C., were sent home for kicking their redheaded classmates; a student in Prince George, B.C., went home from school after being kicked in the leg repeatedly; and 13 students in Calgary were suspended for beating up a redheaded teen.

From CBC.ca.

Courtney Trimm, left, and Dylan Ruth, both Grade 6 students at J.J. Curling Elementary School in Corner Brook, talk about the prevalence of bullying. — Star Photo by Geraldine Brophy

The battle to eradicate bullying from schools is about to take another step forward.

Many local schools at the elementary, junior high an high school levels will be taking part in International Stand Up to Bullying Day, which will be marked Nov. 21.

Inspired by a pair of students who decided to have all of their fellow senior high school students wear pink shirts after another student was bullied for wearing one, Stand Up Day will involve teachers and students wearing pink shirts displaying their pledge against bullying. The day will also feature activities, videos and lessons with an anti-bullying theme.

It’s not the first concerted effort to address the problem of bigger or older students senselessly picking on the vulnerable, but bullying is an issue which students, parents and teachers all have to continue to be vigilant about.

“There is still a lot of bullying going on on the playground, on the bus or going home,” said Courtney Trimm, a Grade 6 student at J.J. Curling Elementary School in Corner Brook. “You see a lot of older kids picking on kids younger than them or smaller than them, or maybe even on some kids that might have special needs.

“It makes you feel pretty bad because, if it was me being picked on, I would feel pretty put down.”

Trimm’s classmate Dylan Ruth agreed that educational campaigns have helped, but not banished bullying far enough away.

“It’s hard to do something about it,” he said. “When you see a gang of people going over to pick on one person for the silliest reason, it’s not a good feeling.

“I think campaigns are making a difference to some of the bullies, but the kids have to do their part and stand up too sometimes and tell a parent or teacher they are being bullied. Some people just keep it to themselves and don’t want to tell anybody, but they should tell somebody.”

In some cases, said Trimm, the bullied person simply talking to the bully might be effective.

“I think, if you are being bullied, you should go and talk to that person about it and tell them what they’re doing is hurting you, instead of keeping it all to yourself,” she said.

Mike Luedee, J.J. Curling’s principal, said great strides have been made in the battle against bullying in recent years, but it would be naive to think the problem has gone away. While overt bullying, like violence and rough play, are easily recognized, bullying often takes more subtle, if not invisible, forms.

He said bullies make up a minute percentage of the students population. The effort to curb inappropriate behaviour towards their fellow students has shifted from educating them about the ill effects of bullying to rewarding positive behaviour, creating empathy for victims or, if necessary, punishment for those who continue not to adhere to the anti-bullying message.

“I think the schools are doing their job,” said Luedee. “It’s just that so many other aspects of society are not onside with us — video games or the aggressive tendencies we see manifesting itself in society today are spilling back into our children.

“We try to educate the students and try to create empathy because, a lot of the time, the bullies were once victims of bullying themselves.

“We also tell students they just aren’t allowed to do some of the things they are doing and that, if they were adults doing this, they would probably get a visit from the police.”

From The Western Star.