Not in Our School and Youth Organizing

Hate, Bullying and Intolerance: Not On Our Campus Five Ways to Move into Action     Not On Our Campus (NOOC) offers solutions-based strategies and tools for change to a network of colleges and universities working to create welcoming and inclusive climates.  Change begins with these five steps. Go to niot.org/project/notonourcampus to find out what others campuses have done.  

“We felt like we were part of something bigger, sharing what we were doing, and the idea of being leaders was very inspiring.” — Becki Cohn Vargas, Ed.D. Dr. Becki Cohn-Vargas is a veteran educator and longtime ally of Not In Our Town. In this piece, penned in 2008, Dr. Cohn-Vargas lays out the lessons from the Palo Alto Unified School District, which embraced Not In Our School activities in 2007. Although Dr. Cohn-Vargas is no longer with the district, she has been instrumental in developing Not In Our School programs and the Palo Alto district’s Not In Our Schools month continues to thrive. Since 2007, the Palo Alto Unified School District has sponsored Not In Our School Palo Alto, a districtwide annual month-long event where students, teachers, administrators and parents engage in activities and discussions about how to address hate, bullying, and harassment at school.

The message of NIOT is Reaching the Classrooms and Schools of Bloomington-Normal, IL By Marc Miller, NIOT Bloomington-Normal Member It’s parent night at at the neighborhood elementary school. Children, their parents in tow, rush from room to room, excited to show off their drawings and projects. Parents, anxious to know more about their children’s progress, take in the posters and decorations as they move from class to class.   But for some, a simple table in the corridor attracts their attention. The banner draped over it says: Take a Stand Against Racism! Sign The Pledge. “What’s this?” says a student, and a table volunteer cheerfully   describes the Not In Our Town program. There are No Racism stickers for notebooks and lockers; larger stickers for bumpers and windows; even temporary tatoos. For parents, there are refrigerator cards with talking points defining common terms: predjudice, stereotype, discrimination; and a simpler set of talking points aimed at the primary grades.

 How Staff and Students at UC Riverside Are Working To Build a Safer and More Inclusive Campus By Kate McLean, NIOT.org When uninvited guests began showing up at the University of California at Riverside campus engaging in what they call “confrontational evangelism,” university staff and students struggled with what to do with their disruptive and upsetting message.  “They carry big signs that basically say, ‘all of you are going to hell.’ Everyone, ‘Hindu, Christian, Catholic, all of you are going to hell,’” says Assistant Dean of Students Alfredo Figueroa. “They spew this stuff and it draws a crowd and our students start to react to it. They have video cameras, and I tell our students, ‘that’s their game. They’re hoping that one of you loses your cool and hits them, because then it becomes about our students being violent.’”