Roughrider Dan Clark stands up to bullying on Pink Shirt Day

Students across Saskatchewan are standing up to bullying by wearing pink on Wednesday.

Last year, more than 56,000 people participated in the bullying prevention campaign called K+S Pink Shirt Day.

Saskatchewan Roughriders Offensive Lineman Dan Clark was bullied in school and often speaks to students about bullying.

He joined the Greg Morgan Morning Show to encourage students not to be bystanders, while spreading the hash tag #besomeoneshero.

“That doesn’t mean flying around and being a superhero, but it also means making sure other people are OK. Standing up for others when they can’t do it themselves,” said Clark.

He said while he may be a big football player now, he feared what would happen on the playground when he heard the recess bell.

He explained that as a bigger kid growing up, people would ask “why don’t you just punch them in the face?”

“That doesn’t work. That’s not a good way to overcome the situation and it could make it worse,” Clark said.

He spoke about the culture while he was growing up that “boys are boys,” but explained it’s now accepted in society to talk about bullying instead of resorting to violence.

“As soon as you open that dialogue with the students, that’s when everything changes. It allows (bullying) to be an open topic,” said Clark.

He encouraged kids to use the power they have to make a difference in school but also to set the standard in the community that bullying is not accepted.