The staff of Delaney Bus Lines in Cornwall, Ontario, once again donned pink T-shirts in honor of Pink Shirt Day with the mantra that bullying can be stopped but it takes a village.
The program is in its fourth year and is organzied by the local Girls Club and SD&G Developmental Services Center, It was started by two male Nova Scotia high school students who organized a protest for a boy in grade 9 who was being bullied for wearing a pink T-shirt to school. Pink shirts were distributed to all the boys in the school to wear, making a non-violent statement that bullying would not be tolerated.
“We are only a small part of a student’s school day; however, we are committed to keeping our school buses bully-free zones,” said Mark Begg, manager of Delaney Bus Lines.
In addition to this awareness campaign, he added that school bus drivers participate in workshops such as: “Growing Respect on Your School Bus” and “Building Positive Student Behaviour on Your School Bus” throughout the school year.
Begg told STN that company employees began wearing the shirts in year one of the program.
Delaney Bus Lines transports approximately 2,200 students for two transportation consortia, representing four different school boards in Eastern Ontario. The company operates a fleet of school buses, wheelchair-accessible buses and passenger vans.
