In a ceremony on October 4, 2013, the students and faculty from Haddonfield Middle School will celebrate their school’s designation as No Place for Hate®, having completed a year of anti bias and anti-bullying programs.
Lisa Friedlander from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will attend the school’s designation ceremony and present them with their official designation banner.
To earn this distinction, the school formed a No Place for Hate® committee, adopted a resolution pledging to create a more inclusive school, and implemented a number of projects promoting respect for differences for both faculty and students.
Haddonfield Middle School started the year with a program called Rachel’s Challenge; Rachel’s story introduces middle school students toRachel Scott, a student killed in the Columbine school shooting tragedy and her challenge to
deliberately reach out to others with kindness. Rachel’s story shows the profound positive impact students can have on those around them by simply paying attention to the little things they do and say every day.
Rachel’s story challenges students to: Dream Big and Believe in Yourself; Be Kind to Others; Practice Positive Gossip; Show Appreciation; and Be the Answer. Inspired by Rachel Scott’s message, students created a Friend of Rachel Club (FOR), where they met before and after school to devise “kindness” projects that would impact the whole school, including birthday locker decorations for students with summer birthdays, kindness chains displaying acts of kindness that were submitted by students, and new student ambassadors who met with new students to ensure they were happy and comfortable at HMS.
Finally, the school worked with a national expert on responsible use of Social Media, helping students to understand that everything they do on social media is “public and permanent.”
This is the third year that Haddonfield Middle School will receive its designation banner. The school is part of more than 220 schools, communities and organizations in southeastern PA/NJ/DE currently participating in the No Place for Hate® program, following former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s endorsement in 2006.
