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Schools around the Gore district were in the pink last Friday to do their bit to kick bullying to the kerb.
West Gore School principal Linda Fraser said bullying was constantly on her school’s radar.
"It’s about making a promise to choose kindness, to include others, [and] to speak up when something’s wrong," she said.
At Waikaka Primary School, pupils agreed there was more to bullying than mean words.
"Hurt people hurt people," Briar Reeves, 10, said.
Alfie Bell, 9, added "a bully is a person that is the one that’s already sad, they’re just ... pushing their emotion on to someone else".
Pink Shirt Day started in Canada in 2007, after a student was bullied for wearing pink at school.
The next day, hundreds of others wore pink T-shirts in support.
The nationwide anti-bullying campaign, which is supported by the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, has been marked in New Zealand since 2009.