By Becki Cohn Vargas

 

Not In Our School Palo Alto is a district wide 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 program began with a school community film screening. In the fall of 2006, we partnered with The Working Group to present “Not in Our Town Northern California.” Over 300 people, including students, parents and teachers attended the session. Along with the showing, we trained teachers to use Not in Our Town curriculum. As a result of the powerful response, our district’s LGBTQ Committee, which had organized the original screening, decided to continue with follow-up activities. But before we had time to organize more events, one of our Palo Alto High School students was harassed, her backpack marked with anti-gay hate graffiti, and her ipod stolen. In response, we began working together with the Gay-Straight Alliance at Palo Alto High School and we decided to do a month of activities called "Not in Our Schools Month."

 

Over the years, more and more schools in the district have embraced the month-long annual event. Posters and buttons are distributed across the five secondary schools in the district saying no to hate, bullying, and harassment for any reason, particularly religious intolerance, homophobia, sexism and racism. The month features a series of activities at both high school campuses, sponsored by a coalition of student clubs, that include speakers, informational booths and cultural events at lunch-time, and showings of Not in Our Town films. Some schools have also set up "stereotype pools," in which people write an ugly stereotype they want to see eliminated on a piece of rice paper. When they put it into the pool, it dissolves. As part of the month, staff training is provided to help teachers with ways to make their classrooms safe for LGBTQ students. We also sponsor a panel discussion for parents from across the district featuring students sharing their experiences and discussing ways to make our schools safe.

Several art teachers have made a student art exhibition based on the Not in Our Town curriculum.

 

 

The following year, we expanded Not In Our Schools month to our middle school campuses with a focus on ways to address bullying. Our slogan was "Be REAL, Respect, Educate, Accept, and Listen.” The middle schools have continued to participate in NIOS month. In one of the most powerful activities we’ve seen, the following school year, one middle school piped into every classroom “Not In Our Town,” followed by another video of a small panel of their students discussing the film and their experiences with discrimination and prejudice.

 

During the 2008 school year, a film crew from The Working Group captured Not In Our Schools month events, which was highly motivational. We felt like we were part of something bigger, sharing what we were doing, and the idea of being leaders was very inspiring. In the Spring of 2009, we kicked off Not In Our Schools month with a community event and premiere of the documentary that The Working Group captured the year before, which was very exciting.

 

That year, we also reached just about every elementary school, with a play we commissioned, called Oskar and Big Bully Battle, about students learning to stand up for what’s right and to stop bullying. We had companion curriculum and also held a series of presentations about bullying for parents.

 

Each year, our Not in Our Schools Month grows, reaching more students, parents, and teachers. We’ve really worked at building a network of teachers, staff and students all taking leadership in organizing the month of activities, and encourage the champions of this work to institutionalize it in their own school. We’ve also learned that each school has to make it their own, so we don’t dictate that every school should have a certain committee or a certain format. But it’s also really good to have a broader community event to pull everyone together to give the month the feeling of a district-wide effort.

 

School administrators and teachers report that they think it’s influencing the schools in a very positive way; it brings out student leadership and gives voice to students who are not usually at the center of things. And I hope that it teaches students to be upstanders, not bystanders, when they see hate or discrimination. I think being an upstander, speaking up or standing up, is something that if you’ve talked and thought about, you’re more likely to find the courage to do it yourself. The idea of having an annual event has set a precedent that at least once a year we’re going to tackle these issues and build awareness with our students. But we also recognize this work has to be linked to ongoing tolerance work.

 

Since 2002, in response to the murder of transgender teen Gwen Araujo, the Palo Alto Unified School District has had a district wide LGBTQ Committee to support students and families feeling safe in school and to comply with California SB 537 that assures schools create safe environments for these students. Core committee members include teachers, students, administrators and parents. The Committee holds monthly meetings and hosts a broader group, including principals and counselors, to help plan the annual Not In Our School Month events.