The girls basketball team at Monsignor McCoy High School was excited to decorate shirts for pink shirt day.--SUBMITTED PHOTO Monsignor McCoy High School
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Students and staff throughout the Medicine Hat Catholic School Division are encouraged to wear pink on Feb. 16 in recognition of Pink Shirt Day.
Pink Shirt Day – also called Anti-Bullying Day – first began in 2007, when students in Nova Scotia rallied with their male classmate by wearing pink to school after he was subject to bullying for doing the same. The pink shirt became a symbol of anti-bullying and, in the years following, schools across Canada joined in to support the message.
“(MHCBE) has been acknowledging it since 2014, if not a bit earlier,” Derrian Hallas, communications co-ordinator with MHCBE told the News. “It’s a day we acknowledge as a day of love, hope and spreading kindness.”
Rather than focusing solely on anti-bullying, MHCBE staff wish to shine light on a fundamental aspect of respect; love for one’s self and love for others.
“Showing love to others and ourselves … is equally important,” said Hallas, “Especially in a world which feels quite divided. We all need (to show) a little more love to one another and ourselves right now.”
Heather Irvine, religious education co-ordinator with MHCBE, believes the message of love fits in well with the division’s theme for the 2021/22 school year, ‘Created in the image of God.’
“Our Pink Shirt Day religious focus was on First Corinthians 16:14 ‘Let all be done in love,” Irvine said. “It really ties in that we want to respect and show dignity to all people because everyone is created in the image of God and also to ourselves because we are created in the image of God.”
Students within the division will be learning about these and other topics tomorrow. Hallas hopes beyond showing their support through pink attire, students will share their thoughts in discussion or creatively.
“Staff have been given creative freedom on how they wish to participate,” Hallas said. “We’re hoping to see a variety of projects and reflections around self-love and kindness.”
