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Students tackle homophobic bullying
LINDSAY LAFRAUGH
02/26/2009

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A wave of pink swept through Thunder Bay‘s Hillcrest high school on Wednesday.
Behind it was the school‘s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), whose members were hoping to wash away homophobic bullying in the community.
“It is definitely generating discussion and getting people talking, which I think is a really important point as educators,” said Leigh Potvin, a social science and family studies teacher at the school, and a teacher adviser for the GSA.
“We have to have conversations about things that are going on in our society and take the opportunity to be leaders in the community,” she said.
This is the second year running that Hillcrest students have decked themselves out in pink for the cause.
The pink day movement was started by high school students in Nova Scotia after a classmate was bullied for wearing pink. It has turned into an annual event at many schools.
“It was a way to say (bullying) is something that is not acceptable in the community,” Potvin said.
Students at schools across the nation followed on Wednesday wore everything from pink underwear to pink parkas to speak out against bullying.
“Looking around the school . . . everybody is wearing a little bit of pink . . . so you can see that everyone is really supportive of (the message),” said Dakota Warkentin, a Grade 12 student and GSA member.
She said she became involved with the GSA to support her family.
“I have two relatives who are gay, so it is really important to me to have it not be looked at as a negative thing,” she said.
Grade 12 student Emma McDonald joined the GSA for similar reasons.
“My brother is homosexual so I am basically doing it for him,” she said.
She said even students who didn‘t wear pink were finding ways to participate.
“Any spirit day you get people who are completely decked out, and then you get the people who wish they were decked out, so we always bring extra pink to school,” she said.
At lunch, participating students gathered in the auditorium for a photo shoot and formed a pink triangle. The symbol was used in Nazi concentration camps to identify gay prisoners, but has since been adopted by the gay community as a symbol of solidarity.
“The significance of the pink triangle is to say . . . here we are, we stand together,” Potvin said.
Sir Winston Churchill high school students will host a similar spirit day on Friday.
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