October 26, 1999County Plans Hate Crime Curriculum for Area Middle Schools
Responding to local and national concern about the rise in hate crimes, the Santa Barbara County Juvenile Justice/Delinquency Prevention Commission and the Santa Barbara County Education Office have commissioned the development of a two-day hate crime curriculum to be delivered to Santa Barbara area middle schools early next year.
The curriculum will be authored by Dr.Joel Federman, president of Creative Communication, a consulting firm that specializes in mediation and diversity training. Federman is also co-director of the Center for Communication and Social Policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which earlier this year released a study of "Choices and Consequences," a middle school anti-violence curriculum developed by Court TV and the National Middle School Association.
"As we all know, no place is immune from the contagion of hate," Federman said. "The earlier young people can learn the value of diversity, the better."
The curriculum will consist of two 45-minute segments focusing on the social impact of hate crimes and the value of diversity. An overnight homework assignment will help students reflect on these subjects. Federman plans to draw from existing lesson plans from across the country that deal with these subjects, in addition to creating unique classroom exercises for the Santa Barbara schools.