Inclusion means EVERYONE!

We are continuing our promotion of social justice and inclusion throughout our school through the QPS (Queer Positive Space) group, and the Global Action Group. Our school realized great gains last year with assemblies and events to raise the issues of social justice and inclusion especially for Queer Youth. There is an urgent need to build upon our success because we are amalgamating with a school for the arts next year and there are still huge concerns about how inclusive our student body is, as well as lots of emotion around the closing of a wonderful school that was very successful in this area. We want to educate, inform and celebrate inclusion in a very visible manner for this reason, with T shirts, speakers and workshops with the student's council, another assembly for the junior grades, rainbow temp tattoos, buttons that say "Inclusion is for everyone" and rainbow lanyards for the teachers who are supportive of moving our culture forward in this area. We want to make it clear what we stand for, and create a welcoming place for everyone who joins us next year. We also wish to draw attention to the Articles under the Declaration for Human Rights; those that relate to identity, belonging, safety and freedom of expression!!

We are inviting students from both schools to come together with a facilitator to design and paint a mural in the cafeteria with a positive message of the celebration of diversity, against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, able-ism, age-ism, racism, religion etc.

Update (April 15, 2012)

This has been an amazing week where the whole school rose to the occasion of celebrating diversity and in inclusion throughout school. "Inclusion is for Everyone" was our theme.

The QPS group (Queer Positive Space - our gay straight alliance) led the planning. We began by creating a QPS T-shirt to mark our presence in the school. Student council and club members were offered one and teachers could purchase one.

The student's council, Amigos (a group that promotes social interaction and meaningful relationships between youth with and without disabilities), the Leadership/Outdoor Education class, and QPS Group the Dixie-Land Band, all came together to put on events to have fun, promote inclusion, celebrate our spirit/success and raise awareness of issues.

Each day we focused on a different colour to symbolize various aspects of Inclusion and people wore that colour to show their support. Our week (April 10-14) went like this: Tuesday was gold/yellow and stood for the golden rule, “treat everyone else as you would like to be treated.” Wednesday was the International Day of Pink against homophobic bullying, Thursday was our school colour day to show our solidarity, Friday was Rainbow day .

Amigos focused on the view from a wheel chair, taking photos to foster a discussion. We had a tie dye t-shirt activity to make shirts to wear on Rainbow day. The Outdoor Education class led a game at lunch inviting everyone to participate. There was an assembly for the grade 9 students to raise awareness about homophobic bullying and address language issue. We had a pink flash mob at lunch after our pink group photo. Our award winning band played to promote the idea that everyone “moves to their own beat”. Friday there was a photo booth to capture images of group hugs that will be used in a bulletin board display at the entrance of the school.

There was excellent participation and a positive mood throughout the school. A wonderful sense of our coming together was palpable. On the final day a “Declaration of Equality” was written by student’s council. It stated that regardless of Race, Class, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Age and Ability students would promise to promote inclusion and abolish discrimination and bullying in all its forms. This was taken around to every class and signed by the students. It was a fantastic week!