On Friday 19th of May it was Pink Shirt Day for people across the globe. At Heaton we could dress in pink to show our support for the day. People could wear pink shirts, pink shorts, pink accessories, anything pink we could find.

Pink Shirt Day represents the concept of anti-bullying. It started in 2007 in Canada. A Year 10 boy came to his new school wearing a pink t-shirt and he was bullied for wearing pink. Some other students thought of the idea to support the new student and bought lots of pink shirts to give out to pupils at his school to wear the next day. This action was spread online and hundreds of students showed up to school wearing pink, some went all out and some just wore t-shirts to stand up against bullying.

This day has been celebrated in New Zealand since 2009.

At Heaton we brought in a gold coin donation to support the anti-bullying message. Our school raised $513.70 from this cause and the money was donated to Women’s Refuge. The media team took photos of all the classes supporting the anti-bullying message and there was a lot of pink.

Report written by Lily and Ethan