Our students will be back in school in a few short weeks and some will have questions and anxiety about what happened in Charlottesville. Here are some resources for responding to incidents of hateful words, actions, and images and making sure your students feel welcome, supported, and valued.
How to Respond to Incidents of Racism, Bullying, and Hate in Schools
How to Deal with Acts of Racism and Hate in Schools
- Before a Crisis Occurs
How can you and others assess your school’s climate with an eye toward defusing tension, preventing escalation and avoiding problems? - When There’s a Crisis
What are the key points to consider when responding to a crisis that has been triggered by a bias incident at your school? - After the Worst is Over
How can you address long-term planning and capacity building for the future, including development of social emotional skills?
White Supremacy
- Lessons to Teach and Learn from ‘Unite the Right’- Anti-Defamation League
- Facing History: The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy
Talking About Race in the Classroom
- Creating the Space to Talk About Race
- Start the Conversation About Racial Justice
- Responding to Hate & Bias – a Facebook Live featuring educator Fakhra Shah and Maureen Costello from Teaching Tolerance
- Discussing Race & Ethnicity – Resources from Teaching Tolerance
Helping Children Cope with Traumatic Events
- NEA Healthy Future School Crisis Guide
Knowing what to do in a crisis can be the difference between stability and upheaval. This step-by-step resource created by educators for educators can make it easier for union leaders, school district administrators, and principals to keep schools safe — before, during and after a crisis. - National Child Traumatic Stress Network
NCTSN has several PDFs and other resources for helping parents and children deal with catastrophic mass violence events, including parent tips for helping school-age children after disasters, which lists children’s reactions with examples of how parents should respond and what they should say.
Teaching Tolerance and Acceptance
- 10 Ways to Go Back to School with Anti-Bias Education
Ten ways to take advantage of resources from the Anti-Defamation League and brush up on your anti-bias education practices. - GLSEN’s Ready, Set, Respect! Elementary Toolkit
We all want students to feel safe and respected and to develop respectful attitudes and behaviors. GLSEN developed Ready, Set, Respect! to provide tools to support elementary educators like you with these efforts. The kit provides a set of tools that will help you prepare to teach about respect and includes lesson plans that can help you seize teachable moments. The lessons focus on name-calling, bullying and bias, LGBT-inclusive family diversity and gender roles and diversity and are designed to be used as either standalone lessons or as part of a school-wide anti-bias or bullying prevention program.
