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Middle school is kind of when it all hits.
Kids, their bodies are changing,
Academically, you know, school is getting tougher.
And, I think for the first time a lot of kids are experiencing the name-calling and being bullied.
So, I think middle-school, it is a great group to target.
We have the privilege of having a video production lab here on campus. So, along with
Ryan Leering (6th grade counselor), we came up with an idea
of getting our students involved in a panel discussion to talk about the
Not In Our School's
videos that we received.
And, to get their opinion on prejudice,
racism, and sexism here at the middle school level.
Counselor: Why do people choose to stand aside and watch when there's something they can do to
help?
Student: You might be scared of the person who is picking on the kid, and might be scared that they might pick on you too.
uh-huh
Student: I think that you still have to step up,
even though sometimes people will judge you.
Cause, you
are the one who is standing up for a kid that is
being picked on.
Student: But then you really have somebody else
who will stand up for you because you had shown them that you would stand up for somebody else.
Student: That's how you make a better place and a better school.
Teacher: In the show it talked about acceptance
being the same thing as silence.
So if you are quiet and you do nothing that is the same thing as accepting it.
What do you guys think about that?
Student: I don't think its alright to just sit and say nothing,
you should at least try to help out.
Student: I have friends and their parents don't even try to talk to them about it at home.
And, it's never been a part of their lives to talk about racism, and sexism,
and accepting all different kinds of people. So, I think it's definitely important to talk
about it at school - with everyone.
Student: You may not think that there's prejudice in Palo Alto.
But, actually one of our neighbors, he seems prejudice.
Like, if i say "Hi," to him or anything, he just brushes me off or whatever.
Student: And if you are different or anything like I am you are a target. I am a stutterer.
People call me names
like sp-e-e-e-e
e-e-ch
speech speech impediment
They had no idea what it really was
and it made me really mad at them.
it's harder for the
people that were calling racist or as Alex said prejudice, its hard to deal with the
fact
that someone's telling you that you need to stop being
prejudice and you need to stop what you're doing.
I think that it's a human nature to also
stereotype and categorize things in your mind and so being able to realize that
we all do that, we all do it
is one of the first steps in stopping the problem.
America just isn't about white people
because its also about other people it's about Jewish people, it's about Muslims,
it's about Mexicans
it's about everyone in this country.
I definitely think that other schools can do this
I feel like kids out there definitely have an opinion on prejudice. Many
of them experiences themselves just a matter of school
staff tapping into that
and trying to come up with different activities like we did today
to get those opinions out
and to get students listening to their peers
about what's going on in their school.
It's very powerful tool.