Seventh graders at Orinda Intermediate School are taking a personal approach to the study of Islam by inviting Shajee Syed-Quadri to be a guest speaker in their world history class. As president of the Muslim Student Association at Irvington High School, Shajee shares stories about what it's like to be a typical American teenager and a practicing Muslim. This peer-to-peer program breaks down religious and cultural stereotypes, and provides the space for students to connect and learn from each other. This film is part of a series featuring Facing History and Ourselves.
Video Category: Preventative Strategies
When a white supremacist starts buying up tracts of land in the small farming town of Leith, North Dakota, civic leaders wonder how they alone can resist plans to establish Leith as a Nazi enclave. When members of the National Socialist Movement come to visit, supporters from across the state also come, swelling the ranks of the local townsfolk from just over a dozen to a couple of hundred united in their message, "Not In Our State."
Update: Leith, North Dakota Mayor Moves to Dissolve Town to Stop White Supremacist Takeover (June 26, 2018)
"Who is this group that's coming? And I realized ... it's Fred Phelps and my heart just dropped. I can't believe they're coming. Why us? Out of all the schools, why us?"
—Daisy Renazco, Gunn High School teacher
Above is one of NIOT.org's most popular videos, "Gunn High School Sings Away Hate Group," which has garnered more than 225,000 views on our YouTube channel. Ellen DeGeneres, in a Tweet, said she was "so unbelievably proud of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA for demonstrating love & acceptance in a peaceful way."
What's significant about this video is that it showcases how a community can stand up to hate in a peaceful and constructive way. The video was shot in 2010, when the Kansas hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps' family) announced they would picket Bay Area schools and Jewish institutions. The students of Gunn High School, located in Palo Alto, Calif., decided they could not sit quietly.
At Orange High School in Pepper Pike, Ohio, students are mapping their school to locate the spaces where bullying takes place. After identifying the "bully hotspots," including the cafeteria, media lab, and locker rooms, students created a flash freeze demonstration to raise awareness about bullying, and opened the conversation about how to create a safer school.
Transgender activists, community members, civic leaders and local law enforcement gather in Oakland, CA on Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor the victims of brutal hate crimes across the country.
Learn more at the NIOT.org blog.
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Local student leaders from the Ferguson Youth Initiative came up with the idea to hold a summit to talk about how to make change in the aftermath of the tragedy their community has experienced. In late September, young people gathered at Florissant Valley Community College just miles from where Michael Brown was shot. Joined by community members and educators, the group talked about how the relationship between youth and the police of Ferguson needs to change, and what activities are needed in their town.
The Not In Our School Video Action Kit contains everything you need to need to launch your own Not in Our School anti-bullying campaign:
Not In Our Town Executive Producer Patrice O'Neill sat down with Bernard Melekian, Director for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), to talk about the role of the police in addressing hate crimes. In this short interview, Melekian addresses the following questions:
What is community policing?
What's an example of a good community policing practice?
How can community policing help people address hate crimes?
Why is hate crime data so difficult to collect?
Why does hate crime classification matter?
How does community policing serve victims?
What message do you have for police department leaders?
Not In Our Town has joined forces with the COPS Office to increase hate crime awareness and foster safety and inclusion for residents nationwide.
To learn more about this initiative and get involved, visit http://www.niot.org/cops.
This promo features scenes from an upcoming PBS special about three stories of students and their communities standing together to stop hate and bullying.
The students of Newcomers High, a school for newly arrived immigrants, reached out to Joselo Lucero with letters of sympathy when his brother Marcelo was killed in 2008. Two years later, Joselo visits the school to speak to the students about what he learned from the loss of his brother, his experiences as an immigrant, and the difficult process of forgiveness.