Students go pink to stop bullying (+video)

Children at a Rotorua school wore pink yesterday to take a stand against bullying and raise funds for a friendship seat for their playground.

St Michael's Catholic School took part in the Pink Shirt Day, which asks New Zealanders to stand together in order to take action against bullying.

Year 5 and 6 teacher Sara Mines said one of the parents, Shelley Butler, notified the school about the day and asked if it would be interested.

"Our kids really love getting involved in these sorts of events and it raises awareness."

Mrs Mines said bullying was something kids needed to be aware of, as well as the different types of bullying, such as cyber-bullying.

The school did a lot of work around what bullying and a bully was, and what it felt like when you were bullied, she said.

Mrs Mines said the children paid a gold coin donation for the day and a pink band, with funds raised going towards a friendship seat for the playground.

She said if a child had no one to play with, they would be able to go and sit on the friendship seat, and once the school had the seat, it would do work with the children around what it meant to be a friend and what to do when they saw someone was lonely.

Ten-year-old Bailee Swinyard said she wore pink for the anti-bullying day because "it's not fair on the people that have really bad days, just because of one silly person".

Riley Muggleton, 9, said a lot of people got hurt from bullying every day and people could get bullied anywhere.

Nine-year-old Ruby Campbell said it was important that on Pink Shirt Day there was no bullying, and that bullies had often been victims of bullying in the past.