Mix It Up Day at Lunch Day—an annual event hosted by Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program—was recently called a “nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools” by The American Family Association. The AFA is an anti-gay evangelical group that is asking parents to keep their children home on Oct. 30 to avoid Mix It Up Day activities, according to the New York Times.
This week, Not In Our Town Executive Producer Patrice O’Neill spoke with Teaching Tolerance director Maureen Costello about the controversy and why activities like Mix It Up Day pave the way for accepting and safe schools.
Patrice O’Neill: What’s the idea behind Mix it Up Day?
Blog
October 22, 2012 - 11:17am
October Bullying Prevention Month is almost over. But there is still time to take action!
All month long, we have discussed bullying and showcased creative ways to address it.
During Week 1, we premiered the video “Break Bullying: Not in the Breakroom, Not on the Playground.” This video addressed the urgency and seriousness of bullying, and was featured on the CNN Schools of Thought website and viewed over 50,000 times!
For Week 2, we showed that anyone can speak up and stand up to bullying. We shared innovative and creative ways to be upstanders, people who speak up and stand up to bullying and intolerance.
October 18, 2012 - 5:33pm
Not In Our School “Break Bullying” PSA featured on CNN website!
The NIOS anti-bullying PSA, “Break Bullying,” now has more than 39,000 views! CNN re-posted the video along with a blogpost on their “Schools of Thought” blog, featuring excerpts from an interview with the film’s creator, Mike Nelson. The news giant was impressed with the PSA, calling it a “gut-wrenching” portrayal of bullying that will hopefully make the cruel reality of childhood bullying more salient to adults.
October 17, 2012 - 12:37pm
Not In Our School video, “Students Stand Up to Cyberbullying,” and two students from the film were featured at the Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship Day Town Hall. As Watchung Hills Regional High School teacher Cara Yuknis put it, “As long as we have students like Akshay and Sarah who stand up for what is right and who inspire others to use social media sites to ‘Create Communities of Kindness,’ our future is in good hands.”
By Mary Sok, teacher at Watchung Hills Regional High School
October 16, 2012 - 4:20pm
For educators, National Bullying Prevention Month is a great opportunity to discuss cyberbullying in the classroom.
In this Not In Our School video, “Students Take On Cyberbullying,” high school students tackle the problem of cyberbullying in their schools through a class discussion and presentation. They log onto Facebook and create a more positive online environment, addressing the problem of cyberbullying head-on.
Watch this short film with your students:
Discuss:
1. What strategies might students use to address the issue of cyberbullying?2. What challenges might students confront?3. What might be the consequences of doing nothing?
Several students in this film were invited to participate in a town hall for New York Digital Citizenship Day cohosted by Common Sense Media and MTV. Stay tuned for more later this week!