Picture / Mental Health Foundation Opera singer Paul Potts has spoken out for anti-bullying campaign Pink Shirt Day, while visiting New Zealand. The Britain’s Got Talent winner was badly bullied as a schoolboy. He spoke about his experiences during a special Pink Shirt Day assembly at Auckland’s Royal Oak Primary School. Potts encouraged students to speak up if they are being bullied, and tell someone if they see a classmate being targeted. “I had 12 years of people thinking that I wasn’t important, and that left me feeling the same way,” he told the assembly. “The reason for that was because I didn’t talk to anybody, but you don’t have to do it all by yourself. You’re not on your own.” On 23 May, New Zealanders are encouraged to wear a pink shirt and take a stand for Pink Shirt Day, an annual awareness day held in many countries around the world, which encourages people to talk about bullying and take action against it. It began in Canada when two 17-year-old high school students decided to stand up for a friend who had been harassed for wearing a pink shirt to school. They went to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops, sent out the message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning handed them to students to wear.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 16th April 2014 - 11:48am