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Lee teens work to add important lesson to school curriculum

The Lee Middle and High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance club is celebrating the fourth year of its student-driven No Place for Hate program.

Lee — Although teens tend to cart around books on geometry, biology, and American history in the halls of their schools, none of those reference sources include teachings on kindness, inclusion, and anti-bullying measures. A group of Lee Middle and High School (LMHS) students are taking action to change that.

Senior Lilly Reynolds is in her fourth year in the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club and serves as president of the 20-member association that spans grades seven through 12. The group has been locally organized in its current iteration since 2012 and counts among its mission goals “to promote a dialogue for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) issues in our school, and to provide a safe space and accepting atmosphere for the LGBT community.”

As a freshman, Reynolds was among the initial GSA contingency that introduced the No Place for Hate project to the school in 2021, a 25-year program produced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) aimed at proactively addressing bias and bullying in educational facilities. Although the national program outlines methods to conduct its curriculum, Reynolds said the Lee GSA used those resources to create a unique one-day, 48-minute program for the school’s seventh and eighth graders that has continued through this year. “Every single year we improve [the program] and make a great difference,” Reynolds said.

Much of today’s local programming evolved through trial and error, she said, incorporating comments from those attending the presentation as well as GSA members. As a result, the project’s format has morphed from a presentation to a single group into activities within smaller student groups to allow for greater interaction between participants. The program centers around three activities: a video and discussion addressing stereotypes; an engaging online learning game called Kahoot! geared to educate players on terms such as “microaggression” and “racism” while also bringing out personal stereotypes; and a responsive game allowing players to agree, disagree, or state their uncertainty about different perceived biases as presenters offer feedback.

“It’s a very low-risk way to engage with the students and their opinions while still not making it pointed, directed questions,” said Meaghan Bresnahan, one of the group’s three faculty advisors that includes Francie Jarowski and Amy Verdi. Students can choose to participate in the discussions or responses, she said, but aren’t obligated to take part in the activities. “It’s a very small group; it’s a very safe space for kids to have discussions about topics that can be very heavy,” Bresnahan said.

Twelve GSA members presented this year’s outreach program held January 7. Reynolds reflected that the 80 to 90 middle schoolers attending “got the lesson.” “For middle schoolers, it’s a bit difficult to listen to a new presentation and take a lot from that, but I would definitely say we get a lot of responses, and they are very respectful in listening to what we have to say,” Reynolds said, adding that the younger students contributed their personal experiences to the broader conversation. “Last year, it went so well that we got thank-you cards from the middle schoolers. This year, we heard they were wondering if we were going to have another outreach [session] to speak more about it with them.”

Lee Middle and High School GSA members Anna Olivia, Sophia Puntin, and Terryn Chisholm lead seventh and eighth graders in an exercise to promote kindness and anti-bias. Photo courtesy of the Lee Middle and High School GSA.

GSA Treasurer Sophia Puntin, a senior who also worked on getting the program off the ground, reflected on the project’s earlier sessions, noting the younger students’ increasing enthusiasm over the years. “Even if they might not be acting super obvious outwardly towards their friends about exactly how they feel, they’re still comfortable talking to us, saying they appreciate [the lesson] and that they’re glad we went there,” she said.

Puntin credits part of the program’s success to the high school age of its presenters, unlike elementary school programs in which teachers address what to do if a child encounters bullying. “When we talk to middle schoolers, it’s fellow students talking to them,” Puntin said. “Students are less likely to necessarily pay attention or listen to teachers for one reason or another. Hearing it from a high schooler and knowing that they were recently in middle school is a nice new point of view, a new way to hear information.”

When ninth grade GSA member and student advisor Allie Puntin was in elementary school, the teacher-led talks on bullying “felt like a lecture.” “People care more about us presenting it as an outreach because it’s so interactive, they’re games you want to participate in,” she said.

In 2021, LMHS Principal Gregg Brighenti was on board with the No Place for Hate project after GSA members proposed adding the program to the school schedule. “It was GSA members who came to our [school board] meetings and said, ‘Things were really hard for me in middle school, that was a really vulnerable time… and we wish we had had something, we wish we had connections to students who shared my concerns, who I could relate to, feel comfortable with,’” Verdi said.

She praised the administration’s support and encouragement for the program, and Bresnahan said the staff gives parents a “heads up” about the No Place for Hate project because “in the spirit of being inclusive and welcoming for everybody, we also don’t want people to feel like they have to stay there if they have some belief that doesn’t align with that.”

Recalling her middle school years, Reynolds said she saw the value in the support the project provides while recognizing that younger students may lack knowing “how to spread kindness, how to respond to people who are bullying, or discriminating or stereotyping along those lines.”

GSA members begin planning for the program in August, at the start of the school year, first by educating themselves about issues to bring forth and then deciding on what topic is the most important to address.

For Reynolds, this year’s presentation became more important as the group “noticed students with less respect and showing less kindness.” “Every year shows such a significant reason why we have to discuss what we’re discussing, but we are so glad that they are listening to us and are taking it in,” Reynolds said.

Lee High School senior Lilly Reynolds (at table, left) and junior Nox Colello (at table, right) administer an activity during the January 7 No Place for Hate exercise at the middle school. Photo courtesy of the Lee Middle and High School GSA.

Nox Collello, a junior and the group’s vice president, echoed Reynolds’ sentiments and said they also noticed concerning behavior around the school and school-related events that take place outside of the building. “A lot of use of derogatory and harmful language and using words in harmful ways instead of in positive ways,” Collelo said. “So, I definitely think this year it was very important that we did this outreach, and we did it well.”

Besides developing an understanding of bias and bullying for younger kids, facilitating No Place for Hate offered a personal benefit for Sophia Puntin who has always been doubtful about her public-speaking skills. “It’s always made me nervous,” Sophia Puntin said. “Over the years, I’ve found myself growing more comfortable. Especially middle schoolers. They’re not going to hide how they feel about your presentation.”

Senior Alex Hoctor came back to the group after taking a year off. Now a GSA student advisor, she said she wanted to rejoin the GSA community. “We work together to build this presentation to help educate younger children who [are] still learning,” Hoctor said. “I wanted to join this club again to be able to be a part of that, to learn more about these subjects while also helping others learn more at the same time.”

Bresnahan voiced that she has been “impressed” with the student-driven group’s organization. “They have tons of ideas, and they’re able to put them into practice,” Bresnahan said. “I feel honored to watch them do that because they are the ones [who] are making the difference, and they are the ones [who] are making the change in the school population.”

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