Pink Shirt Day Apr. 10, 2013

In 2007, a grade nine student wore a pink shirt to school, at the local rural high school. He was mercilessly teased by a group of older boys.

The next day, two older boys came to school with fifty pink shirts for themselves and their friends. They wore the shirts as an act of solidarity with the new boy and as an act against bullies.

News of this kindness spread across the country and beyond Canada's borders. The young men were humbled by the attention they received. From their act, a movement was born. Today, is Pink Shirt Day in the Annapolis Valley, a day to address the issues of bullies and the bullied.

This past weekend, a young woman in this province took her life. The news of her life and her death have spread across the country and beyond Canada's boundaries. She killed herself because at fifteen she drank vodka, became drunk and was raped by four young men. One of these men took a picture of the rape, as it was taking place. A young man turns to the camera and gives a thumbs up.

When the young girl returned to school the next week, she discovered this picture had travelled throughout the social media of her fellow students. "Slut"was a word she heard too often that day. She was devastated. Her Facebook became a receptacle for trash.

At home, she collapsed, then told her mother the story. In time, the police were called. She did not return to her school, but enrolled in a new school. She was a good girl with a kind heart who made a mistake and became an object of distain and ridicule, when four boys obsenely took advantage of her mistake.

Unfortunately, there will be much to discuss on this "Pink Shirt Day". Rape and harassment are on a path so far beyond bullying, but have roots in the same dangerous thinking that there are excuses that allow some humans to treat other humans, inhumanely. Humans are humans, who must all be treated with respect.

At this moment there are girls in local schools being labelled sluts and of course, the boys are just being boys.

One fine young girl took her life last weekend. Two years of suffering became more than she could bare.

The communities that touch young peoples' lives must provide  effective ways for both young men and young women to discover the honourable ways, to be human with each other, in this confusing world.