Pink ruled at all Nova Scotia schools Thursday, the first Stand Up Against Bullying Day across the province.

More than 1,200 students at Halifax West High School were decked out in pink T-shirts, sweaters and scarves as a show of support for the provincially proclaimed day.

Camila Dasgupta, 17, said she wore pink to prove that a colour is just a colour, and people shouldn't be judged by the hue they choose to wear.

"Yeah, we have our pre-prejudiced opinions with those colours because when a child is born, and if they're a boy or a girl — you dress them in pink to show that it's a girl and dress them in blue to show that it's a guy," she said.

"But, I don't think that has anything to do with your sexual orientation in any way. It's just a colour, so if you like the look of it, then you can wear it."

Last September, Premier Rodney MacDonald proclaimed the second Thursday of the school year as anti-bulling day, and asked all students at every grade level to wear something pink.

The pink movement was begun last fall by two Annapolis Valley students who rallied around a younger student after he was bullied for wearing a pink polo shirt on the first day of school.

David Shepherd and Travis Price, who were in Grade 12 at Central Kings Rural High School, asked all students at their school to wear pink T-shirts to combat bullying.

They bought 50 pink shirts from a discount store, then e-mailed classmates to get them on board. The next day, hundreds of students showed up wearing pink clothing. Before long, the movement had spread around the province and across the country.

This year, a Facebook site called Pink Day 2008 has more than 12,000 people around the world who said they plan to wear pink Thursday.