I am writing this in response to the Pink Shirt Day advocates.
Our daughter Dalyce went to high school in a small rural community in southern Alberta.
She took kindergarten to Grade 9 in a different school and transferred to the high school. She was on the honour roll and made the starting line in volleyball. A very close friend of hers was not so lucky. He was picked on and bullied from the start.
One teacher did not allow bullying in her class but some of them did. They just looked the other way.
My daughter had been away from the school for a few days and noticed her friend was not there. She found out that he was at home alone. She immediately drove to his residence to ensure he was all right and brought him back to school.
After she found out who the boys were that had bullied him into staying home she "hunted" them down one by one and verbally tore a strip off each one of them.
Case closed, end of discussion. Or so she thought.
At this time she was only in Grade 10. After a few weeks, one day she was called into the office. The powers that be had gotten wind of the situation and wanted to do something about it. Her question was, "why now?" Her response was, "You were aware of the problem and did nothing about it so I took care of it."
Pink Shirt Day was shortly thereafter. In light of the circumstances Dalyce refused to wear the pink shirt. One of the teachers who refused to help her friend bullied her into wearing the pink shirt.
As a result of the hypocrisy involved in her situation she considers Pink Shirt Day to be fundamentally flawed.
Terry Unruh
Pine Lake
