The Anti-Defamation League will come to Oak Park High School to present a program called “Hate & Harmony.” The program, requested by school administration, comes from the ADL’s A World of Difference Institute.

Freshmen, sophomores and juniors will participate in these presentations in their English classes January 20 – 29. Seniors will participate during their senior retreat. Beginning the 2020-21 school year, the incoming freshmen will all view this presentation annually.

The goals of the AWODI are “to create a respectful, inclusive and safe learning environment and community, to build an understanding of the value and benefits of diversity, to improve intergroup relations, to eradicate all forms of bigotry — both explicit and implicit and to encourage personal responsibility in the promotion of justice and equity.”

Principal Kevin Buchanan hopes this lesson will remind students about respecting others.

“We reached out to the ADL to help us create some training for students regarding implicit bias and cultural bias in general, and what symbols, terms, and behaviors should be avoided. If we’re going to create a safe space where students can embrace diversity, I think it’s worth spending the time with the students,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan believes these presentations will teach an important lesson in respecting the diverse religious and ethnic heritages in our school.”

According to Buchanan, while the administration originally planned on having seniors participate in their English classes as well, they moved it to the senior retreat for budgetary reasons. To help lower costs, the ADL is subsidizing part of the cost. Even with their help, as of now, the seniors who aren’t attending the retreat will not participate.

“The cost of the lessons were prohibitive — we wouldn’t have been able to do them if we had to pay for all the presentations,” Buchanan said. “By putting it into the retreat, we can absorb some of the costs, and now, we’re only dealing with three grade levels.”

Junior Karen Dotan thinks the ADL’s presentation will remind students of the diversity that makes both humanity and our school more beautiful.

“The ADL sends a really important message about respecting each others’ differences as human beings because it is our differences that make us beautiful,” Dotan said. “We should celebrate the things that make us unique. We should feel empowered by our differences in order to see our humanity as the similarity that keeps us together in a more harmonious environment.”

Assistant Principal Natalie Smith hopes this presentation will remind students to be consciously aware of the choices they make and how they affect their peers and those around them.

“I think, not just teenagers, but all people need those reminders [that] what you do and say matters. We don’t just want to tolerate, we want to appreciate and see the value that everybody can bring, not just to Oak Park, but to the world,” Smith said.