Blog | Page 144 | Not in Our Town

Blog

November 15, 2012 - 4:53pm
This is the second year in a row that Lancaster's students, teachers and parents have celebrated the start of Bullying Prevention Month in their city. Dozens turned out to watch their mayor and city council sign a Not in Our Town proclamation declaring Lancaster's schools a safe zone from intolerance and hate. Check out the full story in The Antelope Valley Times. Just like last year, Mayor R. Rex Harris joined with local school district administrators to officially sign the proclamation that challenges local leaders and students to stand up to bullying in their schools. Here's the full proclamation: WHEREAS schools make substantial contributions to the future of America and to the development of our young people as responsible and productive citizens; and
November 12, 2012 - 3:35pm
Ole Miss Students Hold Vigil After Election Night Protests Last week, University of Mississippi students stood up to another divisive protest. On Election Night, after the re-election of President Barack Obama, more than 400 students gathered to protest, yell racial epithets and burn an Obama campaign sign. Chancellor Dan Jones quickly denounced the protests, saying students and faculty of the university were “ashamed” of the actions of a few of their peers. The following day, student group One Mississippi gathered about 700 students at a candlelight vigil, where they read the university’s creed to “respect the dignity of each person.” It was the same counter tactic they used when the Ku Klux Klan protested in support of the controversial chant—“the South will rise again”—sung at university football games in 2009. 
November 12, 2012 - 3:30pm
By Janet Sasson Edgette, Psy.D Sharing the quiet neighborhood in which I grew up was a girl I’ll call Marcie. Marcie wasn’t a particularly nice girl, but that didn’t stop me or any of the other kids in the neighborhood from trying to be her friend. She toyed sadistically and expertly with our wishes to be part of her “in” group.  One summer she made each of us pinkie swear that we believed her story about there being the decapitated Frankenstein heads underneath the sewer lids on our street. I didn’t believe in Frankenstein, but I was afraid to not believe in Marcie. I spent one whole year engrossed in the terrible, tantalizing fantasy of lifting off those lids and finding heads in varying states of decay.
November 8, 2012 - 9:29am
This sign was posted on a fence a few yards from where Marcelo Lucero was killed in a hate crime attack on Nov. 8, 2012 in Patchogue, NY.  Today marks the fourth anniversary of Marcelo Lucero’s hate crime killing in Patchogue, NY. Marcelo’s death unveiled a pattern of anti-immigrant attacks that had gone unnoticed for years. We documented Patchogue’s efforts to heal divisions after tragedy in Light in the Darkness, and we remember Marcelo Lucero today because immigrants are still vulnerable to violence.  A young Mayan man recently came to our office to share the story of how he was severely beaten by white supremacists on the streets of San Francisco last year. “I felt the first blow hit me and from there it didn’t stop,” he told us. “I didn’t know how to escape.”
November 7, 2012 - 1:53pm
In this piece from MTV's A Thin Line blog, Liz Stark talks about the Not In Our School model.  Ever since we were little, we have listened to lessons about kindness and respect.  Treat people the way you wish to be treated.  The Golden Rule.  I have always thought that the “Golden Rule” got its nickname because chemical gold is an inert metal; in a sense, it never rusts and never fades.  The Golden Rule isunyielding and timeless; a universal truth.