Kay Bingham students don pink to promote kindness

“There’s this one boy in Grade 9 who started wearing a pink shirt to school and he got bullied for it,” described another Grade 6 student. “Then two other students saw this and bought around 50 shirts, which got people around the school to start wearing them to show that just because you wear something different, doesn’t mean you can bully them.”

Many students donned fully pink outfits to show their support of anti-bullying. Others took lessons they learned to shape what they think of others.

“I’m not rude to anyone who’s different from me because everybody’s different,” said a Grade 3 student.

One student who had struggled with bullying in the past decided not to repeat the cycle and change how younger students are treated.

“It’s very important for me, especially since a lot of times in my life, I’ve struggled with bullying,” said the Grade 7 boy. “Now that I’m one of the older kids in this school, I always try to make it kind of my duty… to make sure that the kids always feel like they are amazing in their own way.”

Coming on the tails of Kindness Week, students are being recognized for their kind acts in a friendly competition between classrooms. Students are rewarded with Pink Shirt slips.

When CFJC asked a Grade 4 student how many he had acquired so far, he answered with “40,” boasting the winners get extra recess time.

Having an extra recess on the line is high stakes for the students of Kay Bingham. Many classrooms had separate events going on to show their classmates kindness.

“We were writing compliments on other people’s papers,” said one student.

“My papers say, like, ‘funny, creative, friendly, genius, beautiful, calm, jolly, respectful and loving,’” said another student.

Those kind words are then turned into a word art project.

“We did enough to have others know better about themselves and see what other people think about them,” said a Grade 4 student.

Teachers at Kay Bingham relish events like these because they are an opportunity to share the successes of their students.

“We’re really proud of what we’re doing. We surveyed at the beginning of this year and it was… 88 per cent of students feel like the teachers care about them. Kindness is certainly something we can celebrate as a big event but also something we practice every day and invest our time and energy into being kind to each other and students,” said Lisa Kay, Grade 6 and 7 teacher at Kay Bingham.

Students stated that, going forward, they’ll use these lessons to help improve the lives of themselves and their classmates.

by Curtis Goodrum

Kay Bingham students don pink to promote kindness

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