Students from Palo Alto spoke passionately about their experiences dealing with ethnic and anti-gay slurs and cyberbullying at a Not In Our Schools event held at the Media Center last month. The school-community conversation focused on bullying and strategies for how to be an upstander. Here is a powerful example from the event.

A high school student talks about being the target of an ethnic slur on Facebook as part of a conversation about cyberbullying.

The event started off with The Working Group’s film Not In Our School: Palo Alto, which features leaders behind last year’s “Not In Our Schools” month, as well as highlights from the different activities across the district. Following the film, Becki Cohn-Vargas from the Palo Alto Unified School District led the group in discussion, touching on hate slurs, bullying, and standing up to make schools safe and inclusive.

Here is a teacher talking about her experience confronting hateful comments in her classroom:

A high school teacher recounts an intervention she made when an anonymous student left an ethnic slur in her question box during class.

The program wrapped up PAUSD’s fourth annual “Not In Our Schools” month, which saw elementary schools across the district stage productions of the anti-bullying play, “Oscar and the Big Bully Battle”; middle schools screening Not In Our School: Palo Alto; and high schools engaging in week-long activities [1] for their “Not In Our School” weeks.

You can watch the full program on Comcast Community Cable Channel 28 or on the Media Center’s website [2]. Check out their show times [3] to find out when the program will be broadcast next.