Jena Inspires Lessons for the Classroom

       According to a 2006 survey conducted by Teaching Tolerance, the National Education Association, and the Civil Rights Project, most teachers claim their schools are free of ethnic or racial bias, yet federal studies reveal that one in four students are victims of racial or ethnic incidents during the course of the school year.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has begun its investigation of the incidents at Jena High School. The hearings follow on the heels of recent news of hate crimes, including the noose-copycat incident at Columbia University and the racial slur that appeared on a bench during a Harlem high school football game in New York City.
 Richard Cohen president of the Southern Law Poverty Center, who testified at the hearings, referred educators to his organization’s Teaching Tolerance Web site, specifically to “Six Lessons From Jena.” As a path to early intervention, the lessons include ways to examine a school’s climate including how to identify and respond to bias incidents and address offensive language.
The lesson includes the following suggestions:  
*Don’t ignore obvious signs of trouble
*Examine your school’s climate
*Take bias incidents seriously
*Provide forums for meaningful discussion.
In highly charged bias incidents, schools should hold forums for educators, students, parents and community members and issue regular updates about the incident, describing what happened, why the incident was unacceptable and how the school has responded thus far. Schools should invite comments from attendees and seek their input about ways the school, students, parents and the community can work together to resolve the underlying problems.

— Teachers of Color