Quick Start Guide: How to Launch a Not In Our School Campaign

The Not In Our School (NIOS) Quick Start Guide will help you mobilize students to be “upstanders” who take action to stand up for another and create a climate that reflects the values of safety, respect, and inclusion. The guide highlights innovative solutions to bullying and intolerance, and presents activities that have been successfully implemented in schools and may be viewed in videos with lesson guides at notinourschool.org.

School needs to be a place where students discover themselves as individuals, and where each student feels that a unique identity is an asset to him or her—and to the world. Young people need to feel emotionally comfortable in an accepting and "identity safe" environment where stereotypes and stereotype threat (the fear of being judged by a negative stereotype) are addressed by educators and adults. Efforts to build empathy and involve students in the process of change can shift the school culture to become a warm, caring environment where bullying is much less likely to occur.