No Place for Hate at Finley Middle School

J. Taylor Finley Middle School’s No Place for Hate initiative is off and running with the selection of a dynamic group of student ambassadors and a full set of activities.

“Finley Middle School believes in cultivating a school community where every child feels respected and represented,” said English/ENL teacher Alison Capewell, who is the club’s co-faculty advisor along with school librarian Carmen DiBartolomeo. “This is our third year participating in No Place For Hate, a national program committed to celebrating diversity, promoting respect for differences and challenging bias and bullying. In order to include student voice in this program, we distributed a Google Form to gauge student interest in demonstrating skills as leaders, displaying good character, and supporting building a community of inclusion. Beginning in October, seventh and eighth grade student ambassadors will be called upon at various times of the year to work together in order to enhance our building and meet our No Place for Hate goals.”

No Place for Hate student ambassadors include Kailee Alfaro Cruz, Amelia Brown, Ashley Castillo Guevara, Annabelle Donovan, Brady Duke, Sutter Flynn, Carmem Gonzalez Robles, Grace Gonzalez, Johanson Guevara Guerrero, Amiyah Herring, Sarina Kapoor, Emma Leiter, Celia LoPorto, Mia Marsala, Cayden Mollica, Scarlett Phillips, Vader Renkewitz, Ruby Richter, Zackary Smith and Justin Vujeva.

Since its debut more than two years ago, some of Finley’s No Place for Hate activities have included:

• A guest speaker discussed the importance of kindness and paying it forward.

• Students added ways they can make our school and community a better place to paper hands and art teachers Jessica Simms and Karen Morea helped collage it into display of the world.

• Each homeroom signed a piece of paper the combined to form the word Finley in order to demonstrate their affinity to the No Place for Hate pledge.

• Students watched a video about bullying and reflected on the importance of speaking up.

• Homerooms discussed the “identity iceberg” and how much of who we are is not seen at the surface level.

• Ms. DiBartolomeo changes the display monthly in the school lobby’s Blue Zone to showcase information concerning monthly themes.

This year, Finley is adding an additional extended advisory period in order to include more time to strengthen school culture. “We will work on No Place for Hate goals during this time,” Mrs. Capewell said. “Students will use this time to reflect on the monthly theme, have discussions and participate in their school community to recognize and advocate for issues that impact them. The work we collaboratively do shows students the importance of respect and inclusion and even though we only have our students for two years here at Finley, we make strides every day.”