Educators and students across the sunflower state wore pink this week to stand up to bullying. 

The Kansas State Department of Education challenged people to wear pink on Tuesday, Oct. 3, or any day this week to stand up to bullying. 

By joint resolution, the Kansas State Senate and the Kansas State Board of Education declared the first full week of October as Kansas Anti-Bullying Awareness Week. October is also National Bullying Prevention Month. 

The percentage of Kansas kids who reported they were bullied had been decreasing since 2008, reaching an all-time low in 2021 while many students weren’t attending school in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, since then, bullying has been trending upward again. In 2023, bullying at school was at the highest level ever reported, according to the Kansas Communities that Care survey. Nearly one in three students – or 32% - reported being bullied in the past year. 

The color pink is often associated with bullying prevention because of Pink Shirt Day, which started in 2007 in Canada after students donned pink shirts in support of a peer who was bullied for wearing pink. Pink Day is celebrated internationally in different ways and on different dates. 

KSDE asked everyone to wear pink, snap a photograph and share it on social media using the hashtag #BullyingStopsHere and tagging @ksdehq.  

These are just a sampling of how schools participated in Anti-Bullying Awareness Week.