WSD students think pink

WSD schools celebrated International Day of Pink on April 14.

The annual anti-bullying event started after Nova Scotia high school students David Shepherd and Travis Price witnessed the bullying of a fellow Grade 9 student for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school in 2007. In response, Shepherd and Price distributed 75 pink tank tops to their peers to wear to school the next day.

At École Sacré-Coeur, students celebrated Day of Pink by spreading pink positivity.  

In addition to wearing pink t-shirts to school, students wrote over 300 positive messages in support of those facing discrimination of all kinds.

The words of encouragement were then posted to a bulletin board and displayed in a hallway for students and staff to see. The project was led by Toute le monde, the school’s 2SLGBTQ+ club.

According to Sacré-Coeur guidance counsellor Stéphane Gautron, one student’s contribution to the Day of Pink project declared, “No matter how different we are, we’re all made of the same stuff.”  

Another student stated that “positive language helps support good mental health.” 

Gautron said the goal of the project was to “bring together the unifying spirt of the school.”

“I was so happy to see the students participate and their messages of support,” Gautron said. 

At R.B. Russell Vocational High School, students in the Horticulture program expressed love and kindness through floristry. The student’s creations included a beautiful turtle-shaped floral arrangement. 

“Over the past 10 years, we have been using a turtle we created to be a messenger of ideas for our projects,” said Louise Shachtay, Horticulture instructor. 

“The turtle is the same base year after year and every student that works on it, reconstructs it and communicates through flowers the cause they want to display.”

“My students wanted to use a variety of hues of pink to represent all the different areas of anti-bullying and the people who experience it. The flowers used in the turtle are both standard and mini carnations. The standard carnations used in the top of the shell represent strength and the mini carnations used for the rest of the body represent strength in numbers to raise awareness.”

Champlain School and Shaughnessy Park School also celebrated Day of Pink. Students wrote anti-bullying messages and uplifting notes on pink paper, which was cut into T-shirt shapes and displayed on posters and bulletin boards in the schools.