Celebrated annually around the globe, an east Auckland school paid homage to Pink Shirt Day with students and staff wearing pink and maroon coloured clothing.
On Friday May 20, schools worldwide celebrated Pink Shirt Day, a movement that began in “Canada in 2007 when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying after a peer was bullied for wearing a pink shirt”.
A paper published in 2021 found that New Zealand has one of the highest rates: a fact Pink Shirt Day seeks to shine a light on.
Throughout the week, Howick Intermediate students learned about the values of speaking up and standing together.
This was seen most clearly when pupils and teachers were gathered on the school’s grass basketball court – a student was asked to give a karakia (prayer), didn’t feel confident and his peers came up and supported him.
“They learnt the difference in being mean, being rude, and a bully, and the seriousness of it,” Stephanie Young, the school’s health coordinator, says.
“What to do when they see it and how everyone is different.
Currently they’ve (students) been asked to fill in a crayon with whatever they wanted, and it came out like we’re all a packet of crayons! It’s very cool.”
Howick Intermediate raised $502 in gold coin donations for the Mental Health Foundation.
