girlfriend whose mother had red hair, and ended the relationship to avoid having redheaded children, and even admitted to harboring what he described as racial prejudice against gingers. He later married Emma Sugiyama, a Japanese woman. Controversy Ginger Kids supposedly inspired the infamous "National Kick a Ginger Day" event, of which three incidents involving the event and the episode gained notoriety. The event started out as a Facebook group or event in 2008 with a target date of November 20 and attracted members from Canada and the United States, eventually extending as far as the United Kingdom and Ireland. In line with the starting date, the first incidents of Kick a Ginger Day took place on the same date in the same year across Canada and the United States. Several students with red hair were assaulted by other students. A police spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the incident as a hate crime. In 2010, YouTuber Michael Kittrell, better known as CopperCab, uploaded a video referring to the episode titled "GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!" that went viral. South Park later parodied the video in their promotion for Season 14. A second Kick a Ginger Day incident happened in 2013 at Wingfield Academy in Rotherham, Yorkshire, where red-headed students faced discrimination based on their hair color. Parents of the discriminated students launched a Facebook group protesting the offending students in an attempt to end the bullying. Many parents were enraged of the incident, resulting in some of them fetching their children during the school hours out of fear of them being potential targets. School staff "strongly reprimanded" the offending students. A school spokesperson declared the incidents "deplorable acts" and stated that the entire institution was warned that students who continued such discrimination would also be punished. The third incident happened in Massachusetts in 2015 where students of red hair also suffered the same fate, with some injured and bleeding. Disciplinary hearings and tolerance seminars were conducted. Singer Ed Sheeran claims (in a joke form) the episode was the start of noticeable discrimination against red hair in America, despite people with ginger hair being made fun of for decades prior to this. References External links "Ginger Kids" Full episode at South Park Studios South Park (season 9) episodes Television episodes about bullying Animation controversies in television Television controversies in the United States