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Not in Our School Videos

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  • Rockford, IL middle school students use skits to challenge stereotypes.
  • 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.
  • Leaders of One Mississippi, a student group devoted to bridging racial and social barriers at the University of Mississippi, bring students together for a dialogue meeting about their hopes and fears for the organization. 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
  • Each year, Facing History teacher Jane Wooster asks the students in her classes to take on a "social action" project of their own choosing. This year, several of the students have chosen to conduct a lunch-time demonstration to draw attention to the use of the word "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants, and start a school-wide conversation about the way immigrants are perceived in their community.
  • 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.
  • An African American student challenges racial stereotypes.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Students take time to reflect on how Not in Our School and Not in Our Town programs affected them. They discuss stereotyping, bullying, and their own experiences with intolerance.
  • Each year, Facing History teacher Jane Wooster asks the students in her classes to take on a "social action" project of their own choosing. This year, several of the students have chosen to conduct a lunch-time demonstration to draw attention to the use of the word "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants, and start a school-wide conversation about the way immigrants are perceived in their community.
  • 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.
  • The Coastside Armada Harley Club rolls into Peralta Elementary in Oakland, CA for the Not In Our School Launch Assembly, and students and bikers shatter stereotypes together. When the students learn that one biker likes to play dolls with his daughter, they realize that these bikers aren't so mean and scary after all.
  • An African American student challenges racial stereotypes.
  • Students take time to reflect on how Not in Our School and Not in Our Town programs affected them. They discuss stereotyping, bullying, and their own experiences with intolerance.
  • 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.
  • The packed gymnasium erupted on a Tuesday night with applause as the Oakland High School varsity boys basketball team ran onto the court for the first home game of the season. The “No H8” basketball game was created by the students to honor Sasha Fleischman, a high school senior at nearby Maybeck High School in Berkeley, CA, who was badly burned after being set on fire while sleeping on a city bus, and to remind the local community that Oakland High is a school where diversity is celebrated and students stand up to injustice. This event is just one part of an ongoing Not In Our School campaign by Oakland High School.
  • The PBS special that sparked a national movement against hate.
  • How does Not In Our Town inspire students to talk about inclusion and take positive action against hate and intolerance? At the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) leaders invited Not In Our Town Executive Director Jonathan Bernstein to present films and engage in conversation about working together to create safe schools and communities.
  • After transgender teen Gwen Araujo is killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, the town's residents and civic leaders must acknowledge and deal with this brutal and preventable crime. Through their local high school production of The Laramie Project, the students and Newark residents begin to see parallels in their own community. This is an excerpt of Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here.