October 22, 2010

>Ally Week Voices: Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School

>All during Ally Week we’ll be highlighting stories about allies as part of the Ally Week story contest. We received this story of all-ages, school-wide Ally Week action from the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, an independent school in New York City, NY.

If you have an Ally Week story you want to share, email us at info@allyweek.org.

LREI Students Take Action During Ally Week

Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School is an independent school in the West Village section of NYC. It was founded in the late 1920‘s by Elisabeth Irwin. She was committed to encouraging students to take action within their communities and they have been doing so for decades.

When teachers from the Four Year Old class through the High School spoke to students about Ally Week, many students were ready to take matters into their own hands. Students were encouraging their parents to grab an Ally Sticker on their way to work.

First Graders were generating a game plan for what to say when the time came for them to stand up for others. Leading up to Ally Week, our first graders talked about what it means to be an Ally, framing the conversation around what it means to be a friend. Some children push and tease and bully, our teachers explained, and sometimes they hurt other kids by ignoring them. Our teachers stressed the fact that kids can make a difference in situations like these. Being an Ally means speaking up!

The children brainstormed ways to stand up for their friends, then created speech bubbles. Specifically, these are scripts of what to say on the playground. The first graders also role played about what they learned and made cut-paper collages in art class.

An 8th grade student informed her 5th through 8th grade peers at their weekly Middle School Meeting that Facebook friends were encouraging people to wear purple on October 20. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s what this youth wanted to promote at our school, spirit for all. Upon hearing this, another middle schooler realized that some students and faculty who may want to participate may not actually own an item of purple clothing. She was inspired to make purple ribbon pins which she then distributed on Wednesday, October 20.

Third Graders, while on a farm trip for the week, learned about the different colors on the LGBT flag and made purple wrist bands with construction paper to wear on October 20. While looking around the Farm for tape, one student said, “Why don’t we use the Ally Stickers instead of tape,” and the idea spread.

Our goal is simple, start the year reminding students, families and faculty of the importance of being an Ally. Start when they are young and remind them every year. The rest of the year, practice, practice, practice. One day, when they hear LGBT bullying or slurs, when someone they know (or don’t know) is being teased for who they are, we want our students to know what to do. For LREI students, taking action is a part of their learning. It’s a part of their life.

Click here for information on how educators can support Ally Week.

   

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