Day of Pink spurs thousands to stand for respect
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- Published on Thursday, April 10, 2014
myWestman.ca
As part of the third annual Red Cross Day of Pink, more than 19,000 people across the province stood for respect on Wednesday, April 9.
Day of Pink brings awareness of the impact of bullying and what people can do to create safe and respectful communities. Across Manitoba, more than 365 schools and businesses hosted events such as film festivals, speakers’ series, rallies and parades, to inspire their community to take action against bullying.
For each official Day of Pink T-shirt sold, Red Cross can educate one community member to recognize and respond to bullying. This year, Red Cross sold more than 19,000 official T-shirts.
“We have gone above and beyond what we expected to achieve with Red Cross Day of Pink,” said Shawn Feely, provincial director for Canadian Red Cross. “Having so many people across the province choose to take a stand for respect demonstrates that bullying behaviour is no longer socially acceptable.”
Manitoba agreed to mark this year’s Day of Pink by supplying new resources. The province is equipping students and schools with new tools to help prevent and deal with bullying.
"I commend Canadian Red Cross for raising awareness of bullying and inspiring students to take a stand against it,” said Minister of Education and Advanced Learning James Allum. “Day of Pink, the international day against bullying, discrimination, homophobia and trans-phobia in schools and communities, let us take a moment to reaffirm our commitment to work together to prevent bullying in any form. Together, we must do everything we can to ensure all students feel safe and respected in their schools and online.”
Allum also announced the government is working with their education partners to develop Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) guidelines to help ensure students learn to use technology in a safe and responsible way, and avoid being victims of cyberbullying.
"Technology has dramatically changed the nature of bullying in recent years and we need resources that keep up with the reality faced by students today," said Allum.
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