Oceanside Middle School teams up with ADL

Launches initiative to reduce bias and bullying among students

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“No Place For Hate.”

“All Students Are Accepted Here…”

Such signs currently hang around Oceanside Middle School, where the Anti-Defamation League has chosen to pilot its latest “No Place For Hate” program to combat bullying and bias incidents in schools.

“We want kids to see that,” OMS Principal Dr. Allison Glickman-Rogers said. “It sends a message that this is what the adults believe and if they need help, there are adults that they can go to. Every child deserves to walk through these doors and feel safe and accepted, because if they don’t then they are not ready to learn.”

The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” according to the agency’s website. Now, one of the nation's premier civil rights and human relations agency, ADL fights not just anti-Semitism, but all forms of bigotry and hatred.

The ADL’s “No Place for Hate” campaign began in 1999 as a community-based model in New England and quickly transformed into a nationwide school-based program from kindergarten through 12th grade. Today, 1700 schools use the program, and now, OMS is one of one of five schools across the country to pilot the new “No Place for Hate Plus” initiative.

Glickman-Rogers said the school is a good fit for the pilot, as all eighth-graders at OMS take a human relations course, which is a curriculum rooted with the ADL that helps students understand that they can make a difference in the world by first making a difference in their school communities.

The ADL approached the school with the opportunity last year, and OMS launched a climate survey that spring to see whether students felt safe in the building. Though Glickman-Rogers did not wish to specify the results, she said students reported having heard anti-Semitic and racist remarks, as well as prejudice about weight, ethnicity and religion.

From the findings, the school’s No Place For Hate committee — comprising 28 students as well as parents and staff — derived goals last September to reduce the number of incidents where students feel they have been harassed or bullied based on their appearance.

Students and staff have already received training by the ADL to assist them in the mission, and parents can also be trained on Jan. 25. In addition, the school has set up events and activities throughout January. “No Name-Calling Week” begins on Jan. 16. The following week, a presentation on what the ADL has been doing at OMS, along with stats and research related to bullying, will be given. Disguised students who have been bullied will also share their experiences.

On Jan. 30, Ina Leventhal, Oceanside Middle School counselor and “No Place for Hate” coordinator will lead an assembly about not letting hate dictate one’s life. Her fiancé was killed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

“We have always made addressing issues of bias and bullying a priority, but with the framework of No Place for Hate Plus, we have been able to engage students, staff and family members in a way that we believe will lead to real change,” Leventhal, Oceanside Middle School counselor and No Place for Hate coordinator, told the ADL website. “Change is a process, but I really believe that we are on track to create an environment where everyone feels respected and students can focus on becoming responsible global citizens.”

A survey in the spring comparing results to last year will be used to help assess campaign effectiveness.

With a high number of bias incidents occurring around Nassau County in the past few months, including swastika graffiti on sidewalks, walls and around the Nassau Community College campus, more attention has been turned to preventing such hatred in the area.

Glickman-Rogers said, especially now, considering the diversity of the school and community, it is important to re-emphasize the message that hate will never be tolerated. She added that though the one-time activities are important, the school always makes an effort to integrate lessons that address bias and prejudice through literature and history, as well as encourage positive peer interaction.

“We all, at the core, are the same,” she said. We’re all people, we’re all human beings that want nothing more than to be accepted and to be part of the community and respected.”