Lenape named No Place for Hate school for second consecutive year
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.
Lenape High School set the tone for the No Place for Hate initiative by creating a poster campaign called “ID”. The poster teaches students to “interrupt” inappropriate comments or actions and “define” why it is inappropriate. The posters provide quotes that the staff and students can use to interrupt and define.
For their second project, the school held a Mix-It-Up Day, which encouraged students to identify, question and cross social boundaries by sitting at designated lunch tables with a random group of other students. At each table, students participated in icebreaker questions led by a student or staff facilitator. The No Place for Hate concepts were reinforced through an Upstander Lesson delivered by student leaders, which focused on providing students with eight strategies that they can employ during a bullying situation, such as distracting and challenging the aggressor, supporting the target, and reporting the incident.
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.