Defusing School Violence

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Professional Development

Objectives

Activities will help students:

  • empathize with students who attend a school that is troubled with racially motivated violence
  • develop and practice analytic and problem-solving skills
  • recognize that students can defuse violence and tension at school
  • understand and value other perspectives, especially those that differ from your own, through dialogue (as opposed to conflict)

Essential Questions

  • How does hate language affect those who are targeted?
  • How can people change the attitudes that lead to hate-based violence?
  • How can building relationships enhance understanding among people?

Materials

Reading: Setting the Scene

Handout 1: What Do We Do Now?

GLOSSARY

slur | slər |
(noun) an insulting remark

Somalia | səˈmälēə |
(noun) a country in east Africa, formerly a colony of Britain and Italy. Civil war raged in the early 1990s, and Somali has had no effective government since that time. Violence continues to the present day.

Activities

1. In this lesson, you will imagine you are a student at a high school that is polarized by violence between native-born students and foreign-born African immigrant students. You’re going to listen to an account of what was happening at the school. Then, as a class, you will work together to improve the school’s situation. (Note: Read Setting the Scene aloud for the students.)

2. After hearing the account, read and complete the activities on Handout 1: What Do We Do Now? Work together in small, diverse groups. Choose a representative who will report to the class your top suggestions for helping to solve the problem.

3. When you have completed the activities, sit together as a class. Taking turns, each representative should report your group’s top two solutions and explain to the class why you chose them. Keep a class chart that lists the favored options. If there is no clear class consensus on two solutions, return briefly to your small group.  Decide if you’ve changed your minds based on what other groups have presented. Return to the entire class and come to an agreement about the best solutions.

4. Now read what actually happened at the school:

The students felt some urgency, but they weren’t sure what to do. Together with the conflict mediator, they decided that a quick solution would be to talk to their peers and tell them that the violence had to stop. They weren’t all that eager to do it, and they weren’t confident that it would work. But they could do it right away, and at least it was something. So the 25 leaders left the lunchroom that day, each agreeing to talk to five of their peers and tell them that things had to change.

A week later, when students returned from spring break, something had definitely changed at the school. There were no fights that first day, or that first week. In fact, things stayed pretty calm for the rest of the school year. No one was more surprised than the students themselves. They had felt so helpless to make a difference. But they had: just by talking with other students, they had defused the violence in their school.

5. The students found an immediate way to change the situation at their school. As a class, discuss: Does their actual experience change your thinking? Why or why not?

6. The students at this school learned that they could change their attitudes by connecting personally with people who were, in some ways, different than they were, and whom they didn’t know. In small, diverse groups, discuss how you can apply this to situations in your own school. Choose one action you can take, plan it and do it! Discuss or write about the results. For one idea, read about Mix It Up at Lunch Day. 

Standards

Activities and embedded assessments address the following standards (McREL 4th edition)

Behavioral Studies

Standard 4. Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions

Civics

Standard 11. Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society

Standard 14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life

Language Arts

Standard 8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes

Life Skills

Thinking and Reasoning:

Standard 5. Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques

Standard 6. Applies decision-making techniques

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