Students and educators from 29 schools across the region gathered at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh on Oct. 22 to share innovative ideas that will help prevent hate in our communities.
With more than 300 attendees in the student portion of the summit, the event had doubled in size from the prior year.
“This shows us that this is conference speaking to young people,” said Dr. Robert Scherrer, Executive Director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU). “They want to be part of this work, and that I think is something that we really want to celebrate.”
Students attending the conference for the first time viewed the documentary “Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life” to begin the day, while returning students used that time to meet with survivors and family members of the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that claimed 11 lives. In addition, they learned more about local and national resources they can leverage to combat hate in their school communities.
“It’s an impactful film because it doesn’t just cover the tragedy of what occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue, it also talks about the resilience of Pittsburgh and how we came together across faiths, across races, across communities and neighborhoods,” Scherrer said. “It highlights that when bad things happen, there’s still things we can do to combat hate. And so, it really does resonate with the students here in the Pittsburgh region.”
Nick Haberman, Coordinator of Civic Engagement and Anti-Hate Education at the AIU and founder of the LIGHT Education Initiative, helped organize the day. Haberman joined the AIU this school year in a new position designed to support anti-violence efforts in all 42 public school districts in Allegheny County.
“Schools need help supporting their students when it comes to civic engagement and anti-hate education, tand hey need help engaging with events like the Eradicate Hate Global Summit,” Haberman said. “It was clear that there was need for someone to work on this full time.”
Haberman said the AIU is the perfect resource to connect districts.
“Someone has to bring the credibility and accountability for gatherings like this,” he said. “The AIU is the perfect organization to bring people together and support them. Also to identify all the existing assets that can be leveraged to help school districts support their own programs. So, the AIU essentially can help school districts to better meet their own capacity.”
While the AIU works to connect districts, Haberman said the work is really student-led.
“We hope that they are seen as the leaders in this work, both in their schools and communities,” he said. We hope that they can share this in a positive way that promotes compassion and kindness.”
Dr. Scherrer agreed, saying the discussions during the conference are designed to promote the development of student-centric activities specific to each district’s needs.
“The emphasis here is on what is happening in their own school,” he said. “What are the things that they want to work on to combat hate? And I think that’s what is special about this conference: the results might look different in the different school districts. We’re putting students in the position of really kind of thinking through their own local community.”
