On the first day of junior high, Pham was nervous. A seventh grader, he knew he was one of the youngest kids in school. He wore his favorite pink T-shirt for good luck.

As Pham followed signs to his new homeroom, Room 205, he realized how big the seventh and eighth graders were. He didn’t see any of his friends. Suddenly he felt himself being slammed into the lockers in the hall. At least five older kids looked down on him.

“Hey, girly boy,” the tallest one scowled. “Boys don’t wear pink in this school. You hear?”

“Yeah,” said another. “If you do it again you’re gonna get a beating.” Another kid grabbed him by the back pack and lifted him off the ground.

A teacher’s voice called, “Break it up!” The gang of kids moved off. Pham looked up. It didn’t seem as if the teacher had seen him in the middle of that. But some other students had, and two of them came over. Pham started to walk away but one put out their hand. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m Tracy.”

“I’m David,” said the other kid. “We saw what happened. What did those kids say to you?”

Pham told them.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Tracy. “You can wear whatever you want to this school.”

Tracy and David walked Pham to homeroom. “We’ll keep an eye out for you,” they promised.

After school, Tracy and David went to David’s house. “It makes me so mad that a few bullies tell everyone what they can and can’t wear,” said David.

“Yeah, but what can we do?” asked Tracy.

“We could tell the teachers,” David suggested.

“But they’d still do it, after school,” said Tracy.

“We need to take it to the people!” David suggested.

A look of excitement grew on Tracy’s face. “Hey, let’s ask our friends to all wear pink on Monday.”

“Yeah,” smiled David, “but not just our friends. Everyone.”

Tracy grinned. “I can see it now, a sea of pink!”

David and Tracy asked their friends to help them buy 75 T-shirts for kids who didn’t have pink. Then they sent out the word on social media to everyone.

The next Monday, David and Tracy were at school early with their boxes of pink T-shirts. Many kids arrived with pink shirts on and kids who didn’t could take one from the boxes. Some kids used pink fabric to make armbands. One kid brought a pink basketball to recess. At least 400 of the students—over half—wore pink.

That day in school, the bullies gave the kids in pink dirty looks. One of them even kicked over a chair in the cafeteria, but people paid no attention. David and Tracy’s message had been sent, and received—a message about bullying and people looking out for each other. It made almost everyone in the school feel happier.

Pham wore his favorite pink T-shirt that day, under a sweatshirt. When he saw how many kids wore pink, he took off his sweatshirt and wore his “good luck” T-shirt proudly.

This story was inspired by real-life events. Two high school boys in Nova Scotia, Canada created a “sea of pink” in 2007 after a younger student wearing a pink shirt was bullied.

Wondering Questions

Sometimes we feel we MUST do something to make our world better. People who have felt this call to action sometimes “just know” who, where, and how they want to help. Our Unitarian Universalist religion gives us a lens through which we can observe the world around us and notice the places where love is missing and justice needed.

• How do you use your UU lens?
• What’s the way YOU are called to act for love or justice right n ow?

Additional Activities

Download the Fall 2017 UUWorld Families Pages (pdf) for more activities.