麻豆视频

In 2007, two Nova Scotia students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, noticed a fellow student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Instead of being by-standers, like many youth are, Shepherd and Price took action. They purchased as many pink shirts as they could that evening and encouraged all of their friends to wear pink, thus, creating a "sea of pink" at the school.

Since then the movement spread throughout North America and now has resonated throughout the world with International Day of Pink held across the globe.

Wawota Parkland School welcomed Roughrider running back, Neal Hughes, to present on Wednesday, April 9, for the International Day of Pink.

The Roughriders partner with Red Cross to help present an anti-bullying message to schools across Saskatchewan throughout the year, which Hughes explained is something rather unique to the Roughriders within the CFL and are one of the only teams to partake in such a program.

The first hour of Hughes' presentation was focused on the younger crowd, though the older students were still able to take away valuable messages while last half saw the young students leave as Hughes spoke more openly and frankly about bullying to the older students.

Hughes spoke of the different forms of bullying he has seen. As a youth his best friend was targeted for being First Nations, which upset Hughes greatly as he is of Metis heritage.

"If you see bullying you need to step in and if you don't feel comfortable stepping in you can always find somebody to talk to and tell and I think it's important for us to do those things," Hughes said.

He also remembered the boy who was a few years younger that was picked on who he would walk home with, but after going to different high schools lost touch with him only to hear the boy's name on the radio years later as having taken his own life.

"It's one of those stories, again, where I remember this little guy and you guys are very fortunate if you haven't had to experience anything like that because it's very sad" Hughes said. "And he found his only way out was to do that, and it was very tragic, and it was all because of somebody who kept picking on him, all the time."

Bullying is often said to build character, but really it is an act that can create devastation and destruction.

Hughes said that forms of bullying, what people think are just jokes, can be hurtful into adulthood and being aware of what you're saying or how you're saying it is extremely important.

Now with a daughter of his own, Hughes, worries about the affects of bullying even more, therefore, he is active in spreading the message to schools across Canada that bullying needs to stop.

One of the important topics he spoke to was cyber-bullying, which is continually growing with numerous social media sites and different ways youth interact today.

Overall students of Wawota shared their thoughts and impressions of bullying during the day, which showed the school was not void of all issues, but hopefully with more emphasis on stopping bullying and being aware of one's actions it can be reduced.