HOWELL – There were 26 incidents of bias and prejudice in Howell’s public schools during the 2006-07 school year, according to Tom Letson, the student assistance coordinator for the Howell K-8 School District.
In an attempt to prevent behavior that may lead to such situations, administrators at Memorial Middle School, Route 524, held an assembly to discuss cultural diversity, bias and hate crimes to coincide with School Violence Prevention Week.
The discussion focused on bias crimes that have been in the news.
One situation Letson discussed with the students was a racially charged incident that occurred at Jena High School in Jena, La., in which six black teenagers were charged in the fall of 2006 with beating a white teenager unconscious. The beating of the white teenager occurred several months after three white students hung a noose from a shade tree after black students had been given permission by school administrators to sit under the tree at a spot where white students usually congregated.
Letson also discussed an anti-Semitic incident that occurred in June and involved a group of young adults and juveniles from Howell who were driving through Lakewood throwing eggs and making bias statements toward people in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. In that incident four young adults were charged with assault and bias intimidation and three teenagers were charged with juvenile delinquency.
About 180 eighth-graders listened attentively as Letson and Howell police Cpl. Harold Foley reminded them to be tolerant of each other’s differences and to report bias incidents when they happen.
Foley said the program “reminds students to watch what they say and what they do, and to be mindful of how it affects other people.”
“This program is something really important for all the students to accept into their lives and to recognize. It really hits home for them because we know there is always teasing, bullying and harassment. And preventing those things is what we really work hard on,” Foley said.
Memorial Middle School Principal Chuck Welsh said the program is “the most single important organized program. While we focus on (school violence in October), it is actually part of our program throughout the year because we provide back up and support for Mr. Letson’s initiative.”
Welsh said there have not been “any outright bias or hate crime incidents here. Nonetheless, we try to identify anything that could potentially become that. We have established a high standard in our schools for behavior and I think that is an important step toward changing society for the better.”
He said teaching these lessons in school is a plus. He said the youngsters get instant feedback about their actions and words.
“The advantage we have in a school is this is the one setting where children are actually in a community and they get immediate feedback about the impact of the things that they say and do, when they see how it affects other children,” Welsh said. “Here they have an opportunity to practice self-discipline because if they externalize those kind of behaviors they are immediately corrected and consequences will apply. In this environment, children have the opportunity to practice these skills in a social setting.”