 On
November 6, 2006, Ms. Richter and Ms. Smith, our faculty advisors, took us to
a training at the Augusta Civic Center. The Bloomfield School Civil Rights Team
and their leader Ms. Unger along with the Margaret Chase Smith School Team
and leaders, Mary Stuart and Ms. Baker, also attended this training. This training
was organized by the Attorney General’s
office. We began with Assistant Attorney Thom Harnett teaching us about the civil
rights law in Maine. Mr. Harnett reminded us that Maine is the first in the country
to have students participate in civil rights teams at our schools, and we are
making a difference. Our mission as Civil Rights Team members is to promote an
acceptance and celebration of differences in each of our schools.
There were several smaller break out sessions to discuss such issues as
our own biases and how they are developed. We learned that the media, family,
and friends influence biases. We also learned that everyone has blind spots to
these biases and that is why it is good to talk about them. Another activity
included the anatomy of a hate crime, which involved a legal description of a
hate crime and then each team made a silhouette of the person that was the victim
of the crime. We then wrote a story about the crime from the legal description.
By reading the story of a hate crime we were able to understand how individuals
can impact the course of events. We learned that if someone intervenes early
we could make a difference before it becomes violent. For example, if someone
is called a name at school we need to intervene by inviting the targeted student
to come with us so they do not feel so alone or to tell the person calling the
names to stop.
We ended the day with a performance from Shamou, an Iranian drummer. Through
music Shamou talked about his Iranian heritage and how music is a universal language
that crosses all cultures and nationalities.
|
