Sample Letter to Parents

Dear Parent or Guardian,

We want to tell you about some exciting new topics that we will be exploring with your child during the next few months. Through a national initiative called Opening the Door to Diversity: Voices from the Middle School, we will examine ways to create a more positive school community. The project is sponsored by National Middle School Association, Court TV, AT&T, the Anti-Defamation League, Cable in the Classroom Association, the Education Development Center, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Education, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Although school violence actually declined nationally in the last two years, several high-profile shootings such as those in Littleton, Colorado, and Pearl, Mississippi, have given all of us a heightened concern for students' safety. Two common factors that contribute to school violence are a general lack of empathy for others and feeling rejected. Evidence of these emotions is found in the 1993 Louis Harris Study on Racism and Violence in American High Schools - 75 percent of students surveyed said they regularly hear about or see conflicts that result from racial or religious misunderstandings.

"If in education we're relying on fences and security guards, then we're not going to be successful," said Bill Bond, principal of Heath High School near Paducah, Kentucky, where a classmate shot three students to death in 1997. "There has to be a change of attitude. There has to be a change of values. There has to be a feeling of inclusion."

During the next few months, we will address ways that students often become excluded and provide opportunities for all of their voices to be heard. Opening the Door to Diversity will help students understand how fears and misunderstandings develop into intolerance and, ultimately, into hatred and discrimination. Through a series of activities and assignments, students will reflect on their similarities and differences, study the impact of media images and stereotypes, and find ways to stop the spread of hate.

Our goal is not to have universal agreement about controversial topics or to force students to adopt "politically correct" positions. We aim to create cooperative classrooms where all students are accepted and valued.

As Sanford Cloud Jr., national president of The National Conference for Community and Justice, has observed: "Our nation is experiencing a rash of prejudice and a wave of copycat crimes, all grounded in hate and targeted toward individuals because they are somehow different...This pattern leaves us with choices. We can be silent, but we know that is wrong. We can condemn the hate crimes, but we know that is not enough...We must actively participate in the solution, come to know one another, and learn how to work better together, and make our communities more inclusive for all."

We agree that we must come together as a society. Please talk to your child about the lessons we're exploring in class. Let us know if they're having a positive effect. We look forward to working with you as we teach your child about the important role young adolescents can play in making the world a better place for all of us to live.

Sincerely,