In separate ceremonies on Wednesday, Oct. 8, the students and faculty from the Lenape Regional High School District will celebrate their designations as No Place for Hate, having completed another year of anti-bias and anti-bullying programs.
Lisa Friedlander, No Place for Hate Project Director, will attend the ceremonies and present each school with its official designation banner. To earn this distinction, the schools each 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.
At Shawnee High School, students began the year with a presentation of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and wrote a response to prompts about the speech. During the New Jersey Week of Respect, public service announcements played on the school morning show, exploring the question of what respect means and then imagining a world without hate.
Continuing to discuss the theme of diversity, the Multicultural Club and Green Dot students facilitated an activity in which students had the opportunity to write on a Post-It note what makes them different. The activity tied into the school’s One Book, One School theme, where the students read “Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different”, and created a display of the Post-It responses. The students also participated in a Mix-It-Up at Lunch day to break down social barriers and learn from each other’s differences.
This is the second year that the Lenape Regional High School District schools will receive their designation banners. The schools join nearly 220 schools across eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware currently participating in the No Place for Hate program, following Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s endorsement in 2006.
