H.S. seniors lead anti-hate discussion, inspire younger kids

By JORDAN VALLONE jvallone@liherald.com

Students, teachers and administrators in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District are committed to making their schools welcoming and accepting, and a place where there is zero tolerance for acts of hate such as antisemitism.

For Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — students across the district listened to Marion Blumenthal-Lazan, a Holocaust survivor, just before spring break in April. The program was recorded and shown in all district school buildings.

But seniors in Calhoun High

School’s leadership classes wanted to take the district’s efforts a step further. Last week, the seniors began a two-part presentation for seventh- and eighthgrade students at Merrick Avenue Middle School, teaching the importance of decision making and understanding the consequences of using hateful symbols and speech.

Christina Cone, the social studies chair at both Calhoun and Merrick Avenue, said they began leading a Holocaust lesson with seventh-grade students last year, as a way to add to the curriculum. Holocaust education is already included in the eighthgrade curriculum.

When the leadership students were asked if they wanted to participate in the lesson this year, Cone said they immediately agreed to the idea. The leadership program encourages students who take the course to become leaders in their community — by participating in projects and learning vital teamwork skills. The program is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

In Merrick Avenue’s seventhgrade social studies classes last week, four teams of Calhoun leadership students presented a series of PowerPoint slides. They provided examples of symbols that have a hateful meaning, emphasizing the swastika and its origins and how it became a negative symbol when used by the Nazi party. Adolf Hitler’s regime was responsible for the atrocities of the Holocaust, which killed an estimated 11 million people, most of whom were Jewish.

Cone said that Bellmore-Merrick’s schools have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to acts of hate. She explained that when instances are reported, an immediate investigation is launched and a written report is sent to the state. Consequences are determined on a case-by-case basis, but usually result in a suspension.

The presentation also showed the middle school classes that CONTINUED ON PAGE 2