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Not in Our School Videos

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  • Adarsha Shivakumar and Apoorva Rangan are siblings that have used the power to TEACH rural Indians how to produce environmentally- and economically-sustainable fuel. After witnessing the devastation of local ecologies, Adarsha and Apoorva spent months in India convincing locals that processing a native fruit and using the byproducts as fuel presents a solution that balances human energy and local ecosystem needs.
  • Dr. Joseph Marshall, Jr. is an author, activist, and veteran street soldier. Founder of the anti-violence movement Alive & Free, Marshall draws audiences from across the country to his weekly radio program, Street Soldiers— a name Dr. Marshall uses to describe people working to eliminate violence in their communities. To help keep his own community safer, Dr. Marshall co-founded the Omega Boys Club after years of working as a middle school teacher and seeing too many of his students lost to drugs and violence.
  • Florence Jones (1907-2003) was the spiritual leader and chief healer of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of Northern California. The Wintu have called the McCloud River Watershed near Mount Shasta home for more than 1000 years, but were not provided a reservation as gold miners and pioneers drove them away in the name of industry.
  • The son of Filipino immigrants, Laurence Tan was studying to be a doctor when the vision of becoming a teacher presented itself in a dream. Now a fifth-grade teacher in Watts, California, Laurence uses the tool of TEACH to inspire and educate students in an area where opportunities are slim.
  • After being bullied for his small size and pitch of his voice, DeMonte Smith decided to join Safe School Ambassadors at his middle school to reduce the amount of bullying he saw at his school.
  • As a former pro football player, Brian Cox understands the value of teamwork and community in achieving a goal. After retiring from the NFL, Cox came back to his native Los Angeles, witnessing the destruction that gang violence had wrought on his old neighborhood.
  • At the anniversary of the American Disabilities Act, a group of disability rights advocates march in solidarity to assert their rights as Americans and human beings. Many are here because of the work of Eliza Riley, a disability rights advocate in Silicon Valley, who has developed a youth leadership program for people with disabilities.
  • Kiki Vo is an extraORDINARY Sacramento student who, through her perserverence, strong character, and ability to Forgive, has been able to celebrate life, finding happiness and success. Ten years ago, Kiki and her sisters were badly burned in a house fire in their native Vietnam that took the life of their mother. Raised by her father after securing treatment in the United States, Kiki and her sisters edured taunts and bullying and were separated when their father died of lung cancer a few years later. They have since been reunited.
  • Slater Jewell-Kemker is a 17 year old filmmaker and reporter who celebrates the best of humanity, empowering young people to change the world with media and technology.
  • Alex Epstein is a college student who, during high school, was compelled to help rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Using the tool of VOLUNTEER, Alex made multiple trips and engaged with the local community.
  • Palo Alto, CA students find a creative response to hate.
  • From SpeakingInTonguesFilm.info: Sometimes a small idea has big implications. Consider America’s resolute commitment to remaining an “English only” nation. It turns out that our attitudes about language reflect much bigger concerns: that language is a metaphor for the barriers that come between neighbors, be they across the street or around the world.
  • As Indiana University students celebrate the holiday season, the sense of calm is shattered by a series of attacks against Jewish institutions. Bloomington United, a community group created in 1998 after a white supremacist spread hate and murder on campus, reaches out to IU students and helps heal new wounds.
  • Janet Miller, a teacher at Hoover Middle School, was blown away by district-wide statistics that revealed the risk of violence that transgendered youth experience. Moved by the statistics, Miller stated to her colleagues that it was their responsibility to create a safe learning environment for ALL students and that any type of discrimination should not be tolerated.
  • "Identity safe classrooms are those in which teachers strive to ensure students that their social identities are an asset rather than a barrier to success in the classroom. Acknowledging students' identities, rather than trying to be colorblind, can build the foundation for strong positive relationships. This, coupled with challenging opportunities to learn, can help all students begin to feel they are welcomed, supported, and valued as members of the learning community." —Dr. Dorothy Steele Learn more about identity safety in this interview of Dr. Dorothy Steele, co-author with Dr. Becki Cohn-Vargas of the new book for elementary educators, "Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn."
  • In Our Family, children share stories about all kinds of families. Today's children come from families living in one home or two, some are being raised by one mom or one dad, or they might have two parents/caregivers or live with grandparents or other family members. Others have parents/caregivers of different ethnic backgrounds, or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. And some children are adopted or live in blended families. This short film is a collaboration between Our Family Coalition and Not In Our Town to encourage conversation about the many diverse family constellations, to give children the opportunity to see and appreciate their own families, and to be open and respectful to those who are different from them.
  • Four short films about communities today reaching for Dr. King's dream
  • This public service announcement encourages students to be an upstander. Created by high school students from American University's Discover the World of Communication Summer Program held at University of California Berkeley during the Summer of 2011.
  • After a rash of bias-motivated incidents and hate crimes at the University of San Diego, faculty, staff and student leaders have been grappling with how to respond.
  • In 1995, Azim Khamisa's 20-year-old son, Tariq, was delivering a pizza when he was shot to death by a 14-year-old gang member. Experiencing the pain, grief, frustration, and anger that a parent would, Azim decided that the only way he could better the situation was to use the tool of FORGIVE to ensure that this type of tragedy happens less frequently in the future.
  • Stand Up, Stand Out: No Checking, No Capping, No Bullying highlights one middle school’s response to a noticeable increase in “checking,” or the practice of exchanging verbal insults between students. This video highlights the next steps Fairview Middle School took in order to curb the practice of “checking,” stop any opportunity to bully, and ultimately create a safer school for all students and community members.
  • Slater Jewell-Kemker is a 17 year old filmmaker and reporter who celebrates the best of humanity, empowering young people to change the world with media and technology.
  • When Facing History teachers Jamie Lott and Mary Sok asked their World Cultures class about bullying at their school, the class described the hallways as safe. But after listening to a presentation given by hate crimes task force officer Dave D'Amico, they started a discussion about the widespread problem of online bullying, and how they as a class could take the first steps toward preventing it.
  • How do the names people call you affect the way you see yourself?
  • Learn how one middle school counselor created an anti-bullying program at her school and spread it to the entire community. This is a DVD extra from the PBS program, Not In Our Town: Class Actions. For more information on the film, visit niot.org/ClassActions
  • The students of Newcomers High School in Long Island City, which specializes in teaching recent immigrants, and those of St. Luke's, a private middle school in Manhattan, have come together to dialogue about difference and combat bias. The Building Bridges project was created through a collaboration between Newcomers teacher Julie Mann, and St. Luke's teacher Kim Allen, who met ten years ago through a Facing History workshop. Ms. Mann's class of English-learners exchanged letters with their St.Luke's "buddies", and in the first of several meet-ups this year, received help editing their personal immigration stories. In return, St.Luke's students are preparing research papers on immigration informed by the interviews they conducted with their Newcomers buddies.
  • Out in the Silence captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when the announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson's wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy in his small Pennsylvania hometown. Drawn back by a plea for help from the mother of a young gay teen who is being brutally abused at school, Wilson's journey dramatically illustrates the universal challenges of being an outsider in a conservative environment and the transformation that is possible when those who have long been constrained by a traditional code of silence summon the courage to break it. The film portrays the ongoing struggle for justice and equality in communities across the country and depicts the change that is possible when people search for what they have in common rather than what that set them apart. Not In Our School features an excerpt from this inspiring film about CJ, a 16-year-old boy and his mother, who challenge the community and school board in their small town to create an environment where all students feel safe and included. For more information visit http://wpsu.org/outinthesilence. You may also download a discussion guide to Out in the Silence here.
  • When the Kansas hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps' family) announced they would picket Bay Area schools and Jewish institutions, students at Gunn High School decided they could not sit quietly. (3 min 34 sec) Check out our Local Lesson, Helping High Schoolers Take the Lead, which features an interview with Gunn High School Principal Noreen Likins.
  • Students and teachers react to their story on screen.
  • 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.