Pink Shirt Day 2026

Pink Shirt Day is today, Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and it lands hard for a lot of us in Canada.

Because bullying is not just “kids being mean” or some cheesy after-school special where someone steals your hat and everyone learns a lesson by lunch. It also may not be kids, it could be adults, and its not always physical, and that's the really hard part.

I was bullied a lot throughout my childhood and into my adulthood, and it was awful. I detest any form of bullying, and will advocate and support anyone who is bullied, because it can have lasting consequences.

Every person has the right to feel seen and heard, and made to feel worthy - Liz Lee

Bullying gets inside you.

It teaches your nervous system that people are dangerous.

It teaches your brain to scan for threat in every room.

It teaches you to shrink, to mask, to laugh along with the joke so it hurts less.

It teaches you that love is conditional, belonging is fragile, and you are always one mistake away from being targeted again.

And if you were the kid who never understood why you were the target, it’s worse. When you cannot decode the rules everyone else seems to know, you start building a story about yourself instead. Not “they’re being cruel,” but “I must be wrong.” That is how bullying turns into shame, anxiety, panic, depression, and the kind of hopelessness that makes kids want to disappear. That is the part adults often miss.

Not because they do not care, but because many adults still picture bullying as physical. A shove. A threat. A black eye. Those things matter, obviously. But a lot of bullying is psychological. It’s exclusion on purpose. It’s group chats you are not in. It’s people moving seats when you sit down. It’s “just joking” comments that only ever land on one kid. It’s repeated humiliation that builds a belief: I am not safe here. Even repeated gaslighting is now recognized by psychologists and human resources experts as a form of covert, psychological bullying. Check out this site for more on this: https://bullyingrecoveryresourcecenter.org/gaslighting/

Pink Shirt Day started in Canada because two teens saw a Grade 9 student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt and decided to do something. They rallied others to wear pink in solidarity. That origin matters, because it points to the real solution. Not posters. Not assemblies. Peers.

So today, if you are wearing pink, thank you, but I want you to realize:

1. Kindness matters.

2. Kindness without action is just vibes.

   
   

Here is what bullying can look like in real life.

• A kid walks into class and someone whispers their name with a laugh. Nothing you can report, but everyone knows what it means.

• A teen opens their phone at lunch and sees a photo of them taken without permission, already passed around.

• A child is always picked last, always the one nobody wants in their group, always the one the teacher has to place somewhere like a spare piece of furniture.

• A neurodivergent kid is mocked for their voice, their stimming, their 'weird' interests, their literal thinking, their sensory needs, their honesty.

• A teen is targeted because they are queer, questioning, or simply do not fit a narrow social mould.

Bullying is not only about power. It’s about belonging. And kids will do brutal things to protect their own social safety by pushing someone else out. This is what hurts the most as a parent, seeing their child go through this on an almost weekly basis at school. There is so much done when no one is looking, a lot of 'he said, she said', that it is so hard to prove, and in most cases for the schools to do anything about it. Another area that can hurt so deep is when a friend turns out to be the bully. The quiet relational bullying can be so devastating to a child, as it becomes harder to trust anyone.

If you were bullied as a child, you may still feel it in your body as an adult. (I know I certainly do). Maybe you over-explain. Maybe you people-please. Maybe criticism hits you like a punch. Maybe you avoid groups. Maybe you can read a room so fast it looks like a skill, but it is actually hypervigilance. You adapted.

If you think your child is being bullied, here’s what to do (and what not to do)

First, don’t go into interrogation mode. Kids shut down fast when they feel like they are going to trigger a big adult reaction. Your goal is safety and information, not a full confession.

Try asking:

“I’ve noticed that you have not been happy about school lately. I’m on your side. Has anyone been making it hard to feel safe or included?”

“If something is going on, you won’t get in trouble. I just want to understand.”

"I am here if you want to tell me anything"

If they talk, do not immediately problem-solve.

Start with:

“Thank you for telling me.”

“That makes sense that you’d feel ___.”

“You did not deserve that.”

Then get specific, gently:

Where is it happening (class, hallway, bus, online)?

Who is involved (names, groups)?

How often?

What does it look like (words, exclusion, threats, photos, posts)?

Who has seen it (teachers, friends)?

What has your child tried (avoidance, joking, fighting back, freezing)?

Practical steps that help (especially for schools):

If you find you have a real case on your hands, and not a small one off, then you have to take notes.

Document patterns. Dates, screenshots, what was said, who was present. You will need evidence.

Ask the school for a plan, not a conversation. “Who is supervising where this happens? What changes start this week? When do we review progress?”

Request increased adult presence in hotspots (hallways, lunch, bus line). A lot of bullying thrives in low-supervision zones, or when the teacher is turned away.

Push for “protection strategies” for your child that do not punish them.

For example: have a safe person or safe space that they can go to, give them the ability to leave class, have seating changes and supervised transitions.

Treat online bullying as real bullying. Save evidence. Report through the platform if applicable. Ask the school what their policy is for cyberbullying that impacts school safety.

What to avoid:

Telling your child to “just ignore it” as the main strategy. The child could read this as "you are alone in this", or worse (in my mind) "no one is listening to me".

Forcing your child to confront the bully. That is risky, especially when power dynamics and group dynamics are at play.

Don’t assume a child can give a perfectly organized timeline. Acute stress can impair memory retrieval and reduce speech fluency, and autistic kids in particular, can have pragmatic (social) communication differences that make it harder to describe subtle social harm in a way adults immediately recognize. Bullying is stressful, and when the body is preparing for ‘fight-or-flight’ responses it also rapidly affect neural functioning in several brain regions critical for learning and memory. https://www.nature.com/articles/npjscilearn201611

If your child says they feel hopeless, worthless, or like they do not want to be alive, take it seriously. You do not need to decide if it is “real” enough. You respond as if it matters, because it does.

What I wish every school would teach on Pink Shirt Day

Not just “be kind.” That’s the bare minimum.

Teach kids what bullying actually looks like in 2026: social exclusion, image sharing, group chat cruelty, “ironic” insults, targeting neurodivergent traits. The list is exhaustive.

Teach bystanders exactly what to do: interrupt, include, report, stay with the target, save evidence, bring an adult in.

Teach that jokes are not jokes if one person is always the punchline.

Because the goal is not to make kids tougher. The goal is to make schools safer.

Support in Canada (share these with your child, save them yourself)

Kids Help Phone is available across Canada 24/7. Call 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868. If you or someone you love is in immediate crisis related to suicide, you can call or text 9-8-8 in Canada, 24/7. If you’re in BC, the Crisis Centre of BC also lists additional local crisis lines and options.