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It’s time to follow our youth

This week’s editorial from the guest editor of the 100 Mile Free Press
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Feb. 28 was Anti-Bullying Day (a.k.a. Pink Shirt Day) in Canada.

The day originated in Nova Scotia in 2007, after a ninth-grader was bullied for wearing a pink t-shirt to school on the first day of that school year.

Two Grade 12 students from the same school heard about the bullying incident and took it upon themselves to stand up for the younger student.

They bought 50 pink shirts to distribute, went online to advise their classmates of their intentions, and the next day, the school turned into a veritable “sea of pink” by students, who had decided enough was enough and it was time to take a stand against bullying.

Since that fateful day, Anti-Bullying/Pink Shirt Day has become a worldwide phenomenon. Across the South Cariboo on Wednesday, businesses, schools, organizations and many every-day citizens came together to wear a pink shirt and show their support for the initiative.

As you’ve read already, it was an initiative for students and by students, to address an issue they were facing in their classrooms.

It’s often those kind of responses that make a difference. And so, so often, maybe too often, those responses come from our children.

Look at the resilient students from Parkland, Florida.

On Feb. 14, less than a month ago, a former student walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 students and teachers at the school.

Since then, students from the school have become compelling and outspoken advocates for gun control, forcing the issue in front of state legislatures, private business and even as far as the president.

Their eloquence, activism and persistence in the face of such a terrible tragedy has done something no one else has been able to achieve in the United States in recent years. They’ve shifted the rhetoric around gun control and forced Republican lawmakers to consider changes to gun control legislation in the United States. Lawmakers have tentatively supported initiatives opposed by the NRA, such as raising the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle.

It’s something that wasn’t achieved after a gunman walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing six-year-olds, nor something that occurred at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 were killed, many involved in the LGBTQ community.

And, if the point wasn’t already clear, it is our children who are making this happen. Teenagers. People who can’t even vote yet.

If that isn’t something you can use to find faith in the next generation, I don’t know what could do it.

There is so much brilliance coming from our schools, from the youth at PSO organizing the Amnesty Concert next week to raise money for the refugee crisis in Yemen, to the children at elementary schools across the Cariboo headed to class with pink shirts to show care about bullying.

Let’s show our youth that we support them, and do anything to make these initiatives a success.

I know I will have full confidence in the future leaders of our community. I hope you will as well.