What is Upstander Week?
WHAT IT IS:
County Executive Robert Astorino has officially declared May 19-23, 2014 as Upstander Week. This special week is meant to encourage student activism and awareness by inspiring students to become “upstanders” (rather than bystanders) – and to take an active role in changing the world. It is a call to action for participating schools to get their communities involved by hosting an event to bring attention to a particular human rights issue.
HOW IT BEGAN:
The idea was born when a group of teachers who serve on the Educators Planning Committee of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) decided that there should be a day for students to actively get their schools and communities involved in human rights awareness. Then, the HHREC incorporated the plan into its annual Human Rights Institute for High School Student Leaders that is held in March, with participation from over 200 students from approximately 22 area high schools on March 15, 2006. There, the students learned about the genocide currently taking place in Darfur, Sudan, from Rebecca Hamilton, founder of the Darfur Action Group at Harvard Law School. They also got together in workshops to discuss what they and their schools could do to bring attention to the Darfur genocide and other pressing human rights issues.
WHO'S TAKING PART THIS YEAR:
Schools throughout Westchester County have been planning events since this year’s Student Institute on March 12. Many of these schools will be holding events on one of the days during Upstander Week.
As a result of activities this year we reached several thousand area students in an effort to raise awareness of Human Rights Issues. The ultimate goal of these activities is to encourage activism and make students part of the solution. The following schools represent some of the diverse events sponsored by participants in this year's Student Institute.
2014 Upstander Week Activities
Sleepy Hollow High School
On May 17 Sleepy Hollow High School will hold a Special Olympics Spring Games on the campus of the high school. The event will begin at 8:30 am and conclude at 3:30 pm. Track events include 50m, 100m, 400m Relay, Walking, Running) and Field (Turbo Javelin, High Jump, Running Long Jump, Shot Put, Standing Long Jump).
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Solomon Schechter School
On May 19 from 7:00 - 8:30 pm there will be a screening of, Half the Sky, a film based on the best-selling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Following the film there will be a presentation by Raina Kadavil.
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Harrison High School
On May 20 the Human Rights and Global Awareness Club and Friends of Rachel will present the award-winning documentary, Bully, in the Harrison High School Student Union. Following the film, there will be a debrief/discussion session. On Friday, May 30 the 1st Annual Upstanders Walk will take place at the Harrison High School Track beginning at 6pm. Proceeds will benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center.
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Croton Harmon High School
The students will focus on a local and global theme during Upstander Week.
Locally: "Words Last Forever" - a "think before you speak" campaign/pledge where they raise awareness about improper words students use and how what they say and how we judge others has lasting effects (i.e. bullying, intolerance, disrespect, hate, etc.). There will be a screening of the film "Bully" on Thursday, May 22 - to make the message hit home.
Globally: "A Democratic Ukraine" - raising awareness about aggression and appeasement in Crimea and Ukraine, where people can sign a petition, which will be sent to diplomats on all sides.
North Salem High School
Under the direction of Amnesty International and the Human Rights Class, students will work on the campaign, Spread the World to End the Word. Language afftects attitudes. Attitudes impact actions. This ia an on-going effort to raise the consciousness of society about the dehumanizing and hurtful effects of the word "retard(ed)" and encourage people to pledge to stop using the R-word. The campaign is intended to get schools, communities and organizations to rally and pledge their support to help create communities of inclusion and acceptance for all people.
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Briarcliff High School
The students are running an anti-bullying campaign. Their activity began with a district-wide participation in the Defeat the Label program to Stand for Change. The first day consisted of viewing a brief video and then standing in a moment of silence. Upstander Week will consist of morning announcements, posters identifying who students could turn to if they are bullied and ending on Friday, May 23 with a school-wide action in which several human rights groups with in the school all dress the same in solidarity with all those who have been victims of bullying.
New Canaan High School
Students at New Canaan High School perceive themselves as "typical" or "atypical" New Canaan. There is an overall sense of exclusivity among different groups of students that needs to be debunked. We strive to break down perceptions and create a sense of "one united community" that is comprised of different people who are truly equal. Using the school's mentoring program, the sophomore corps will facilitate team-building activities and create school-wide events that focus on commonalities while celebrating diversity.
2013 Upstander Week Activities
Teach-in Emphasizes Action on Poverty at Alexander Hamilton High School
The harsh realities of poverty in America were brought home to students at Alexander Hamilton when students participated in a special teach-in, part of the countywide initiative to encourage activism and awareness among students. The program, led by Alexander Hamilton history teacher Al McCutchen, involved a number of student activities. They included the creation and distribution of posters highlighting poverty and its often unlikely victims as well as introducing students to an online poverty simulation that tests players' ability to survive on $1,000 a month.
The game, called "What You Know About Poverty," can be found on the website www.playspent.org. The goal is to end the month with some money left over. Mr. McCutchen said exposure to the stimulation made students aware of how quickly people's lives can change as a result of changes in employment, housing, medical costs and other expenses. Students also watched a number of videos on poverty that gave them a more realistic perspective on what it looks and feels like today.
North Salem Middle High School Focuses on the Issue of Acceptance
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With a focus on how many words in our daily vernacular can be unconsciously derogatory or degrading, student participants at this year's HHREC Student Institute developed a week long program to increase student awareness of this issue through presentations in homerooms, posters displayed around the school, and by encouraging students to put money in a Swear Jar when using derogatory terms. All proceeds, over $100 were sent to the Trevor Project, a LGBT suicide prevention organization. Students could also wear a free rainbow upstander bracelet and sign a schoolwide pledge to show their support to make North Salem Middle High School a more accepting place.
Rye Neck High School Raises Awareness About Human Trafficking
The program included hanging posters with statistics and facts, including;
• “2 children are sold every minute”,
• “Slavery was abolished 150 years ago, right? While it is true that slavery is illegal almost everywhere on earth, the fact that there are more slaves today than there ever were”
• “Freedom/Dignity/Justice is not for sale”,
• “Empower the world’s most vulnerable to break the cycle of exploitation”
• “Slavery is what slavery has always been: About one person controlling another person using violence and then exploiting them economically, paying them nothing. That’s what slavery is about”
• “Over 100,000 children in the United States are forcefully put into this trade each year”
Second, they showed two short videos and a powerpoint in homeroom to raise
awareness for human trafficking among their peers on May 20 and 21.
Third, in support of human trafficking awareness they have become wholesalers of
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ hoping to cell Thai cord bracelets. This will not only make an impact by creating jobs and funding a project in a country that is most prominently affected by trafficking, but also by raising money to establish a human rights club in Rye Neck with Mrs. Carpiniello as the advisor. The money that stays with us will help return the money used to buy the bracelets and help get us started to find other worthy causes both local and abroad that we can support to make a change.
Finally, on, May 22 the students gave a short fact quiz in homeroom. Those who had the highest score were entered into a raffle to win a T-shirt and bracelet. We hope this will help inspire others spread awareness of this human rights violation.
Previous Upstander Week Activity at Scarsdale High School
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| Upstander Day at Scarsdale High School - View Video |
Workshops at High School Inspires Student Action
On October 21 the entire High School community took part in a day-long series of presentations and workshops that focused on the importance of being an "upstander" - someone who stands up and speaks out, or takes action when encountering injustice. The focus of the day reflects the Scarsdale Schools' motto, "non sibi" - not for one's self.
Students and teachers gathered as a group to view a film about child labor around the world, heard about previous and upcoming visits by Scarsdale students to assist with the Katrina recovery in Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as part of the SOS for Education project, and learned about a proposed trip to Ghana to work on a malaria prevention program.
During the day, students took part in 13 workshops on other opportunities to make a difference. Students also presented workshops on four projects that are the focus of student clubs - Free the Children, Partnership for Youth, Pine Ridge Reservation and Habitat for Humanity. Following Upstander Day, students created another club, Vitamin Angel Alliance, to support an effort described in one of the workshops. This club is dedicated to the prevention of childhood blindness.
For more information about the HHREC, please call 914-696-0738