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Today Two More Schools in the District Are Scheduled to Get the Designation, Which is Granted If Students Hold at Least Three Diversity Events Annually.: Today Two More Schools in the District Are Scheduled to Get the Designation, Which is Granted If Stud

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 12:10 CDT

By Erin Negley, Reading Eagle, Pa.

May 19--Posters, promises and poems celebrating diversity are helping combat prejudice within the Boyertown School District.

On Thursday the district's Colebrookdale and Earl elementary schools were certified No Place for Hate schools by the Anti-Defamation League.

Two more schools, Junior High East and Washington Elementary, are to receive the same certification today.

Schools qualify for the certification if students hold at least three diversity events each year.

The push to embrace diversity came from Junior High West principal Greg Galtere after racial slurs and swastikas were scrawled on the wall of a boys lavatory in February 2005.

The incident occurred about the same time a Boyertown man was charged with attempting to burn a cross in front of a Gilbertsville home.

The suspect died while awaiting court action in connection with the act.

Junior High West held several events, earning the No Place for Hate certification in 2005 and again this year. The other schools in the district are following the junior high's model.

"It's a program that the Anti-Defamation League developed because of its mission, which is, in part, to secure justice and fair treatment for all," said Nancy K. Baron-Baer, associate director for the organization's eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware division. "We believe that prejudice is learned and if it's learned, it can be unlearned.

"A school's a marvelous place to start a program."

At Earl Elementary, the 300 students -- from kindergarten through sixth grade -- signed a no-hate pledge, participated in a community unity walk, drew pictures with different colored crayons and wrote poems.

More than a dozen of them read their posters and poems at an assembly Thursday in which the certification was presented.

"Being mean or bullying means treating other people like dirt," fourth-grader Emilee Semple said in her poem.

The students also recited the No Place for Hate promise, pledging to be fair and kind and tell a teacher if they saw someone being bullied or hurt.

"It's very important that we carry on what we say in our actions every day," said Dr. Craig K. Zerr, the principal.

Fifth-grade teacher Allison C. Black organizes No Place for Hate events at Earl.

"I think it's made our students aware of the outside community because our school is 100 percent white," Black said of the elementary school.

Boyertown is the only school district in the area working to get each of its schools a No Place for Hate certification, Black said.

The high school, New Hanover-Upper Frederick Elementary and Pine Forge Elementary will become certified by the end of the year, said Pauline Garcia, Anti-defamation League project director.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Reading Eagle, Pa.

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Source: Reading Eagle

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