Searching for a new approach to change the culture in the high school, Assistant Principal, Ms. Mackey, brought the Anti-Defamation League A World Of Difference Institute’s program to Swampscott. Last Fall (2012) the program began with 40 teens consisting of mostly upperclassmen.
All students applied and were chosen based on their interest, leadership qualities, and character within the SHS community. Participants were trained for 18 hours by an official ADL trainer. Once students completed this, they became peer trainers and were assigned to Freshmen homerooms during scheduled times throughout the school year to run workshops with the underclassmen students.
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A combination of brief lectures with hands-on activities and games, solidified the ideas the ADL is trying to get across, which are not only acceptance of others, but also understanding that everyone is different and unique and we all have to treat each other with respect to live life in peace.
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Senior and second time Peer Trainer Victoria Frasier said, “our way of teaching acceptance is unique and different from other ways because we don't just stand there and tell people you need to accept everyone.” Frasier says that the Freshmen “learn how what some might call odd here is perfectly normal in other cultures, we help them realize that their peers might be more like them then they think.”
For the 2013-2014 school year, the number of peer trainers in the program has almost doubled. Tiana Delano, a sophomore this year, was trained by the peer trainers last year. Now, she has stepped up and became a peer trainer herself. She is ready to pass on the information she learned to this year’s group of Freshmen. She became involved in the program because she knows how words and actions can hurt people and said, “if the kids in this program help voice that it's ok to be different, a chain reaction will come about.”
This year’s program will have its kick-off during wellness week, February 5th. All peer trainers will have on custom t-shirts to display their mission. Delano is excited for wellness week because it gives her a chance to make a difference, something all peer trainers have in common. During wellness week, Freshmen in particular will be with their homerooms and assigned a group of peer trainers to run the workshops.
Senior Tori Thistle enjoys running the workshops to relay what she thinks is an important message. “I think it’s important for everyone to realize that we all have differences, but if we truly get to know someone, we can find out that we have things in common.”
The long-term goal is that every member of Swampscott High School will have been trained in this material by 2016. With this accomplished, the program can trickle down to the middle school and create long lasting results for the students in their lives and into their futures. Starting small, Swampscott students can slowly make a big change in the world.
