UN's Declaration on the Rights of a Child

In November 1998, vandals targeted a synagogue in Auburn, Maine, twice over a single weekend. As an anti-bias teacher of more than 20 years and as the new dean of students at Auburn Middle School, I felt compelled to use these horrendous crimes as a "teachable moment." I not only wanted my students to be aware that "these things" happen in our community, but I also wanted to instill in them the desire to stand up against hate.

So, working with the school's seven social studies teachers, I showed the seventh and 8th graders the film "Not In Our Town," which depicts how citizens of Billings, Montana, took a stand against bigotry after anti-Semitic crimes rocked their community. (Available from We Do The Work, 5867 Ocean View Dr., Oakland, CA 94618; Fax: (510) 547-8844, or visit www.pbs.org/niot [1].) The teachers then conducted classroom activities on the topic of tolerance.

Soon after the school-wide program, eight students had the opportunity to attend a diversity conference in Boston. When they returned to Auburn, the students proposed the formation of a new group that would promote tolerance and celebrate diversity at our school.

Calling ourselves Team Harmony, the group met weekly and successfully planned and implemented a variety of programs, including a display for Martin Luther King Day and a bulletin board about the ethnic conflicts in Kosovo. I was pleased that the students not only had recognized the challenges that diversity poses but also had opted to take a stand in favor of tolerance and understanding.

And then Columbine happened. Like so many others across the country, the Auburn Middle School community was shocked and horrified by the shooting that claimed 14 lives. Not surprisingly, news of the violence at the Colorado high school monopolized discussions at Team Harmony's weekly meetings.

Reports that the student shooters had faced taunting from peers may have struck home with Auburn's middle schoolers, because Team Harmony members soon began arguing that they should have the right to come to school without fellow students putting them down or harassing them.

The conversation immediately brought to my mind a lesson plan developed by David Shelby and Graham Pike, authors of Global Teacher, Global Learner that involves the use of United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959) in student-led initiatives.

After I introduced Team Harmony to the UN Declaration, my colleague Drea Beale and I listened as the students' questions began to spill forth. What types of rights should students have in our school? What rights would make our school a safer place for all students? Who will determine these rights? How will these rights be developed?

As we examined these questions and the information contained in the Declaration on the Rights of a Child, a strategy began to emerge -- one through which every student could be involved in developing "Auburn Middle School's Bill of Rights."