Pink Shirt Day 2016

How did Pink Shirt Day Start? A grade 9 student in Nova Scotia was teased for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school. Two other students tried to support him by buying 50 pink shirts and ed other students to wear them. The next day hundreds of students showed up wearing pink. The event was noticed by other provinces and now Pink Shirt Day or Anti-Bullying Day is celebrated across Canada and many other countries.

How did Pink Shirt Day Start? Simply put, the events that inspired this day were a group of students taking a stand that they did not tolerate any person being unkind to another. The focus of our day here at Seaview is to promote kindness. Today is only a day to bring special attention to this issue. It is important that we all make choices for our behaviour that makes a difference every day.

What is Bullying? Not all unkind behaviour is necessarily bullying. We are going separate behaviours into three categories: – Peer Conflict – Mean Behaviour – Bullying Behaviour

Peer Conflict Conflict between and among peers is a natural part of growing up. Children will have times when they disagree and can’t solve their own problems. They may even become so frustrated that they say mean things or act out physically by hitting, kicking or trying to hurt. If it’s peer conflict usually children: o choose to play or hang out together; o have equal power (similar age, size, social status, etc.); are equally upset; o both interested in the outcome; and will be able to work things out with adult help (after calming down).

Mean Behaviour Children may try out behaviours to assert themselves – sometimes saying or doing mean things – such as making fun of others, using a hurtful name, taking something without permission, leaving a child out, or “budging” in line. If it is mean behavior, usually: o it is not planned and seems to happen spontaneously or by chance; o it may be aimed at any child nearby; o the child being mean may feel badly when an adult points out the harm they’ve caused.

Bullying Behaviour Bullying is serious behavior that has three key features – all three must be present for the situation to be considered bullying: o Power imbalance -- One child clearly has power over the other(s), which may be due to age, size, social status, and so on. o Intention to harm -- The purpose of the bullying behaviour is to harm or hurt other(s) – it’s intended to be mean and is clearly not accidental. o Repeated over time -- bullying behaviour continues over time, and gets worse with repetition. There is a real or implied threat that the behaviour will not stop, and in fact will become even more serious.

STOP! We need to respect the words “No” and “Stop” This includes when a friend is asking. When a person tells you to stop something it is them telling you they do not like what you are doing or saying.

ERASE BULLYING There is a way to report bullying online as well There is a site called ERASE Bullying where you can report bullying you are seeing or that is happening to you It is important that you are reporting a bullying issue and not just a one time conflict

Seaview’s Promises for Kindness

What Can You Do? Tell your parents or another adult you trust – your teacher, principal, etc. – about the bullying. Remember to be specific. Help the student being bullied by supporting them and helping them to report the incident. If you don’t feel comfortable telling someone, then report it immediately using the anonymous online reporting tool. Don’t visit websites that are meant to target and hurt other students, and don’t forward cruel s, texts, photos, messages, etc. that you may receive from a bully or other students. For cyberbullying remember: don’t delete messages, photos, texts or s – show a parent, teacher or trusted adult and keep them, they may be used as evidence when you report the incident.

What Can You Do? We cannot control other people. We can encourage our friends to treat everyone kindly and not harm others with words or actions. Most importantly we can make sure that our own actions and words are kind.

You Cannot Change the World By Brian Tracy You cannot change the world, But you can present the world with one improved person -- Yourself. You can go to work on yourself to make yourself Into the kind of person you admire and respect. You can become a role model and set a standard for others. You can control and discipline yourself to resist acting

Or speaking in a negative way Toward anyone for any reason. You can insist upon always doing things the loving way, Rather than the hurtful way. By doing these things each day, You can continue on your journey Toward becoming an exceptional human being.

When someone says or does something unintentionally hurtful and they do it once, that’s Rude

When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they do it once, that’s Mean

When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they keep doing it – even when you tell them to stop or show them that you are upset, that’s Bullying

How you make others feel about themselves, says a lot about you.