Travis Price was bullied relentlessly as a child. It started in grade one, with kids calling him ?toilet paper? because his initials are TP. By grade three, he was getting beaten up on the playground, and he ended up in the hospital after some particularly vicious attacks. When he reached high school, which coincided with the advent of social media, he was cyberbullied. ?It was very difficult on me and my family,? says Price, now a 29-year-old bullying prevention and mental health advocate based in Coldbrook, NS. ?I was forced to grow up very quickly to protect myself, avoid these situations and try to come to terms with why this was happening to me.?
Over the years, Price tried various strategies to learn how to stop bullying, including fighting back (which didn?t work) and standing up for himself and others (which did work). In 2007, when Price was in grade 12, he and his friend David Shepherd famously defended a grade nine kid who got bullied for wearing a pink shirt on his first day of high school. The friends encouraged their peers to wear pink to school the next day and bought 75 pink tank tops to hand out. About 85 percent of the student body took up the cause, sending a strong message to the bullies. Today, people in more than 130 countries participate in Pink Shirt Day, also known as Pink Day. ?That simple act of kindness changed the culture within our school and changed the way the world looked at bullying,? says Price. ?Bullying would no longer be accepted. It wo...