Listen, Watch and Learn

When you walk the halls or spend time in the cafeteria—wherever you are on campus—be alert. Are you hearing putdowns and slurs? Do you notice tense or fearful looks between some groups of students? These are early warning signs of potential trouble. Unacknowledged and unchallenged, these attitudes and behaviors can set the stage for worse to come.

Safety, of course, is your first concern. Are direct threats being made? Is danger imminent? These situations may require immediate action. More general, indirect behaviors indicate that there might be a problem with the school’s climate. Is this the type of school you want? Pose that question to students, teachers, parents and staff, and listen closely to the answers.

Take notes. Identify patterns. Be the person who knows what’s really going on at your school.

One more thing: Make sure your staff members exercise the same vigilance in classrooms, playgrounds, the cafeteria, buses—everywhere. Being alert is the responsibility of everyone on campus, and everyone has a duty to report problems they see and hear. Make this an expectation and set up an efficient reporting system, like an anonymous complaint box or a designated staff member. After problems are reported, there must be clear signs of follow-up.

Here’s a checklist to consider as you travel the halls, classrooms and school grounds:

Casual pejoratives.  Do you hear certain words used regularly in a derogatory manner? That’s so gay. That’s lame. That’s retarded. Is the word “bitch” used casually to label female students? Work to establish a climate where casual slurs are uncommon—and are challenged when they do occur. Speak Up at School [1] offers advice on responding to everyday bias.

School “pride.”  Do cheers and chants at sporting events focus on positive aspects of your school, or do they demean opponents instead? Chants or taunts based on ethnic stereotypes and socioeconomic differences have no place in an inclusive school community.

Assemblies and holidays.  Skits and costumes can convey bigoted and stereotypical messages: the “day-laboring Mexican,” students dressed as “rednecks,” people in blackface. Pep rallies, Halloween and other events, like spirit days, can become steeped in stereotypes and bigotry. Set expectations beforehand about appropriate costumes and cultural sensitivity. Discuss the inappropriateness of caricatures or disturbing representations that are rooted in bias and bigotry.

Marginalized students.  Engage students who appear to be left out in the cafeteria, on the playground or in other school settings. Watch for patterns or changes in the way groups of students are aligned. Check for signs of hostility, depression or a marked change in behavior or academic performance, and reach out to the students’ parents or guardians and/or the school counselor as appropriate. Alienated students—either as individuals or in groups—are more susceptible to bias-based bullying and even to recruitment by gangs and hate groups.

Student recognition.  How does your school recognize student achievement? Long-standing traditions may contribute to a sense of entitlement among some students, and feelings of frustration or inadequacy in others. Who is spotlighted and who is ignored? Is there a perception—fair or not—that athletes, advanced placement (AP) students and student leaders enjoy privileges or are disciplined less severely for misconduct? Collaborate with students and faculty in developing more egalitarian ways to honor an array of student achievements.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate [2] offers a lesson—suitable for older students as well as for professional development—exploring levels of hate and bigotry. This can be helpful in gauging the seriousness of what you might encounter on campus.

Staff lounges.  How are teachers and other staff talking among themselves when outside of student hearing? Are teachers making negative comments about the “kids from the trailer park?” Are they telling casually bigoted jokes? Model inclusive, nonbigoted behavior yourself, and interrupt moments of bias among staff.

Your own perceptions.  Pay attention to the comments or complaints you automatically dismiss or discount. Is there a pattern? Is there a gap between your perception of a certain issue (bias-based bullying, for example) and the perception others have of the issue? Explore that with an open mind and a willingness to learn from others.

Involve everyone.  Every person in the school—from the music teacher who visits twice a week to the newest transfer student—should understand the climate of tolerance at your school. “If you see something, say something” should be the model everyone uses. Let everyone know that incidents and concerns should be reported to school leaders in person or anonymously.

Don’t forget the school bus.  Speak regularly with bus drivers about what they are seeing and hearing on the buses. Occasionally assign staff to ride buses (or ride the bus yourself ) to monitor behavior and to reinforce to students that the climate of tolerance includes not just the school grounds, but the bus as well.

Stay Current, Stay Connected

Bias-based social media cases involving students have already made it into U.S. and Canadian courtrooms. Cyberbullying, once a new term, is now a common one. Some schools have or are considering policies or agreements around Facebook use.

“We have kindergartners with Facebook accounts,” said Dawn DuPree Kelley, an Alabama school principal. And when more than two-thirds of youths have cell phones—on which they are more likely to text than talk—and more than 90 percent of youths are active online, other platforms, beyond Facebook, come into play.

Enter Instagram. Tumblr. Digg. StumbleUpon, Fark, foursquare and reddit. These are all new tools, and all potential new outlets for bias-based bullying and bigoted cyber interactions among students.

Add to that the advent of online commentary, which can be vicious and bigoted, exposing young people to dehumanizing invective across the Web on a daily basis. And, of course, there’s the casual bigotry found in various forms of music.

The landscape is dizzying.

Your job, as a school administrator, isn’t necessarily to know every hill and valley of that landscape. But you must stay abreast of new avenues, as they arise, and make sure they’re not infiltrating your school community with biased and bigoted messages. It might be the racist and misogynistic impact of “gangsta rap” at one school, and the antigay messages heard in so-called “murder music” at another. Or it might be Photoshopped pictures of a targeted student at one school, posted on a “burn page,” and it might be a texting campaign targeting a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) or LGBT-perceived student at another school.

Keep your focus on behaviors. What are students doing with these social-media platforms or these songs? The objectives are to keep up with trends and innovations, to be vigilant against biased or bigoted behaviors and not to bury your head in the sand.

Know how students use social media, know how to monitor and set expectations around that usage and decide how to respond when these platforms are used to harm a student or target a group of students. Avail yourself of resources that address the many aspects of this issue.

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The Anti-Defamation League [3] offers resources around school-based Internet issues.

A pilot program from Seattle Public Schools [4] focuses on prevention and parental engagement.

The Cyberbullying Research Center [5] offers updated information about the nature, extent, causes and consequences of cyberbullying, with an assortment of downloadable resources.

The New York Times [6] provides an array of resources on cyberbullying (as well as bullying), including case studies and lesson plans.

MTV’s “A Thin Line [7]” is a youth-directed campaign to raise awareness about how what seems like a harmless joke can end up having serious repercussions.

Wired Safety [8] is one of the longest running online safety organizations. Its Tween and Teen Angel programs empower youths to lead presentations on responsible use of social media and online technology.

Set High Expectations

Protect your school against hate, bias and bigotry by setting firm—and high—expectations early and often. And not just for students. Everyone on staff, from janitors and bus drivers to classroom teachers and support services, must know that hate, disrespect and intimidation have no place on campus. Then reinforce these expectations at every turn.

Messages should be consistent, from the administrator’s office to every classroom and school activity. Expectations should be set at registration, at orientation, on the first day of school, at the first schoolwide assembly—at every opportunity to remind students that yours is a school that does not allow hate or bias to flourish.

While it’s essential to speak up against bias and bigotry in a consistent manner, it’s equally important to reinforce good behavior, praising students for using respectful language, especially during tense or difficult moments. Discipline policies should be reasonable, with no zero-tolerance stances and a focus that is restorative rather than punitive. (See “Capacity Building” in Section 3 for more guidance on this subject.)

“Set up structures to promote respectful behavior,” said Amber Strong Makaiau, a high schoolteacher in Hawaii who authored a conflict-resolution curriculum that was adopted statewide.  “Make it clear: This is how we want people to behave. This is the norm.”

Here are three other considerations:

Create a no-slur school.  Early in the term, state clear support for a safe, open learning environment free of slurs. Be specific: no insults related to ability, appearance, culture, gender, home language, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or social class will be tolerated. Make sure these expectations are clearly outlined in the school handbook—for students, staff and faculty—and ensure that they’re rooted in education, helping to raise both awareness and empathy about the harm done by slurs.

Curb taunting and teasing.  Set expectations of how students should speak to each other, whether they are in or out of earshot of a teacher or administrator. Listen for teasing or insults related to race, ethnicity, body size, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation, clothing, appearance or socioeconomic status. As needed, lead and encourage discussions about respectful ways people should interact. Guide students in brainstorming ways to curb taunting and teasing. Having students develop their own rules, with adult guidance, often results in greater student buy in. Teaching Tolerance offers an excellent activity, “Building a Classroom Constitution [9],” to kick off the school year.

Post reminders.  Administrators can put up signs in their offices and around the school (e.g., “Safe Space from Hate,” or “Hate Has No Home Here”). Classroom teachers can do the same. Teachers also should be encouraged to involve students in making ground rules for the classroom at the start of each year, focusing on respectful behavior and positive interactions. These rules should be posted prominently in each classroom so they can be referred to when rules are not followed. These same rules apply to all adults within the school community, who always should model respectful interaction.

Make the Most of Teachable Moments

It’s generally easier to discuss a hate crime or bias incident that has occurred elsewhere—to pose the questions “Could it happen here?” or “How would we respond?” in a theoretical manner, rather than in the heat of your own crisis.

So prior to any crisis arising on your campus, pay attention to struggles happening at other schools. Find moments that can be used for staff and classroom discussion. Focus the conversation on the kind of atmosphere you want at your school and how you can achieve that. Don’t discuss how to punish perpetrators; instead talk about how to create and sustain a climate in which such an incident would be less likely to occur. Frame discussion questions accordingly.

Don’t ask, “Why did he do that?” Ask instead, “How and why did this happen?”

These are teachable moments. Moments when you can remind all members of the school community about school expectations. Moments when you can help students understand the damage done and pain inflicted by bias and bigotry. Teachers across the country share “teachable moments” with Teaching Tolerance on a regular basis. Join us on Facebook [10] to follow these stories. 

Also use these teachable moments to build student capacity for empathy. Is there something students can do to support those at the other school who were targeted by hate? Write cards of encouragement? Paint a banner of support and send it to the school? Hold a rally at your school in support of victims at the other school, and post a video of it on YouTube?

And remember this: Sometimes, you as a school leader are the one learning in a teachable moment. In any moment of bias or bigotry, whether it happens on campus or elsewhere, ask yourself—and ask others in the school community—what happened and why are people reacting to it? Could it happen here? If so, what might we do to prevent it, or at least lessen its impact?

Because make no mistake, things can go powerfully wrong in the wake of a bias incident at a school—as they did in Jena, Louisiana in 2006. Read “Six Lessons from Jena: What Every School & Educator Should Take to Heart [11]” to learn more about how to constructively respond to a hate incident at your school.

Here are other considerations:

What if hate comes to town?  If a hate group, such as Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, plans to hold a rally in your community, take time to discuss the most effective response. Talk about the group’s history and practices with students, and discuss what other communities have done in the past. Develop a plan that is thoughtful and strategic, avoiding knee-jerk reactions that may end up being portrayed as little more than shouting matches on TV news programs. Likewise, if a hate crime happens in your community or in a neighboring community, be prepared to discuss how your school might respond. Not in Our Town [12] and its Not in Our School program [13] are great resources for planning this kind of response.

Avoid reinjury.  It’s bad enough when a pejorative word is used publicly. Don’t compound the problem by focusing on targeted students when asking questions about the damage caused by a bias-based incident. Don’t single out the Latino students to comment on an anti-immigrant crime or incident. Ask the whole class or group, without singling anyone out, putting anyone on the spot or tacitly demanding that a single person speak for his or her entire identity group.

Speak Up

You’re walking the halls, staying connected, setting high expectations and embracing teachable moments. There’s one more important step. Speak up and out against intolerance. 

When a slur flies, speak up. When a racist joke is told, speak up. Make sure yours is a community that does not remain silent in the face of bigotry. If school leaders say the school is a no-slur zone and then remain silent when someone calls someone else a “bitch” or a “spaz” in the hallway, the message is lost.

And speaking up is not just an administrator-to-student or teacher-to-student scenario. The climate should encourage everyone to speak up against bias and hate, at all levels and in all areas throughout the school.

“We don’t use slurs at this school,” should be a phrase everyone has at the ready.

Here are some other considerations:

Biased “Jokes” aren’t OK.  Speak up against all biased speech, even if it’s used in a “joking” manner. Interrupt whatever is happening—a conversation in the teachers’ lounge, a lesson in the classroom, someone starting to tell an obviously racist or sexist joke—and offer calm, firm guidance. “Those words hurt and anger a lot of people. We don’t use them in this classroom.”

It doesn’t have to be personal.  A powerful response to hate speech is to tie it to one’s own life—my grandmother died in the Holocaust, my brother has a developmental disability, and so on—but the word or slur need not be tied to you personally for it to be offensive. The goal is not to have students avoid using slurs in front of the people targeted by the slurs; rather, the goal is to eliminate the use of slurs no matter who might be within earshot.

Watch for nonverbal taunts, too.  If a student hurtfully mocks another’s appearance, mannerisms, mobility or ability, call the offender’s attention to the fundamental issue of respect. You might consider pulling the individual aside to address and correct such behavior, rather than embarrassing him or her in front of peers, a situation that can lead to a more defensive reaction.

Be a role model.  All adults in the school community should model respectful behavior, especially in tense or difficult moments; remember that you are leaders and mentors, not just random adults. Students are watching, and, whether they admit it or not, they take their cues from the adults around them. It’s especially powerful when one adult speaks up against another adult who has used a slur or biased language. If you ignore a colleague’s racist language, you’re tacitly indicating that it’s OK to use such language.

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A Tool for Your Toolbox

Teaching Tolerance has written a guide, “Speak Up at School [1],” which offers guidance in speaking up against everyday bigotry.