PRINCE ALBERT — Pink Shirt Day was on Feb. 26 for 2025, but the lessons from Pink Shirt Day resonate year-round in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division.
Superintendent Garette Tebay said the work that is done in the division fortifies the message of inclusion in Pink Shirt Day.
“Pink Shirt Day is important because it recognizes the work that we do all year around ensuring that our students feel like they belong in our buildings and that they feel safe and supported in our buildings,” she said.
Pink Shirt Day started in 2007, when a Grade 9 student in Cambridge, Nova Scotia, was bullied by classmates for wearing a pink shirt to school. Taking notice, two students rallied their peers to send a message to the bullies. The next day, the halls were filled with students in pink T-shirts.
The movement is now worldwide, helping educate and inspire others to stand together and take action against violence and bullying.
Tebay said the division has several projects that reflect Pink Shirt Day themes. Among them is a pilot project classroom at Queen Mary School where they give students space to learn how to regulate their emotions so they can connect with their peers and adults in a healthy way. Tebay said it helps students develop health, safe, and positive relationships.
The pilot project was one of two selected in Prince Albert in 2024. The Prince Albert Catholic School Division is also running the project.
The classrooms will have capacity for 15 students and are staffed by a minimum of one teacher and two educational assistants. Other staff support may also be used, including psychologists and counsellors.
"Another example, a glowing example of that would be the work being done at King George, where they won the Inclusive School of Saskatchewan Award last year through Inclusive Saskatchewan,” Tebay added.
King George was chosen as Inclusive School of the Year in June of 2024. The school provides a wide range of learning opportunities, including Experiential Play Based Learning, Land-Based Learning, Character Education, Inclusivity and Cultural Teachings into the curriculum.
"The message is it's ongoing work that we do all the time,” Tebay said. “It's embedded in all of our learning models.
"Most recently, we've embedded it in our land-based learning model, so the work that we do out on the land helps all of our students see themselves in the curriculum. We live in a school division where students are deeply connected to the land, whether they're farming or whether they're hunting or on traditional lands.”
The division has been expanding its land-based learning over the past year through various means.
“Being able to spend time on the land in school and learning with and from it is very important,” Tebay said.
Another example is the student voice in Saskatchewan Rivers Students for Change (SRSC) which Tebay is the superintendent in charge of.
"The idea of making sure that students feel like they belong and that they're part of something bigger than themselves has really been an ongoing discussion with the SRSC since I began at least,” she said.
“Especially coming back from COVID, students wanted to make sure that all of their students still felt like they were part of school traditions that they may have felt have been lost during that time.”
Since 2008, Canadian anti-bullying programs have received more than $2.5 million in funding, thanks to Pink Shirt Day merchandise sales and donations. In 2020 alone, Pink Shirt Day funding supported programs for more than 59,000 youth.
Pink Shirt Day began with a small act of kindness in Nova Scotia in 2007. Since then, Pink Shirt Day events have spread to more than 110 countries, and more than 493,000 Pink Shirt Day shirts have been sold.
