In celebration of
Pink Shirt Day a number of local schools, students and the school district organized a flash mob at a local shopping centre. Watching this video honestly made me start to cry; we have come so far since I was their age. Although it still happens, with initiatives like these, bullying is far less acceptable than it once was.
Bullying is very real; its awful, its hurtful and it can and does have lifelong implications. You may remember
Reena Virk the teenage girl who was bullied and ultimately murdered back in 1997. The thought of it still makes me teary eyed, the same month my younger brother's experience with bullying peaked. It's not my story to tell, but the short story is that he was approached by almost 35 kids and when they left him he was alone, laying on the road, falling in and out of consciousness.
His kneecap was nearly split in half and he suffers physical pain nearly every day. He had to give up skateboarding at a time when it was his solace and although he can still snowboard he needs a hearty does of Advil to make it through the day.
My brother is amazing, and wouldn't be the same person today if he hadn't been bullied; I have the utmost respect for both his strength and resilience. That said, I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that his path through adolescence had been bully-free.
As a parent,
I wish for every child to have a bully-free journey.
Tomorrow is
Pink Shirt Day, an amazing anti-bullying initiative and I believe that together we can successfully make bullying a thing of the past. Below is a PSA put together by the folks at Pink Shirt Day.
I'll be wearing a pink shirt tomorrow, will you?
