Woodland Elementary Becomes Methacton’s First 'No Place For Hate' School

Woodland Elementary officially received its designation as a “No Place For Hate” School, during the students’ first-day-of-school assembly, on the morning of Sept. 4.

Woodland would be the first Methacton School district school to receive the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) distinction.

Last year, the Woodland students worked hard on three major qualifying projects, each one promoting respect for differences for both fellow students and faculty. According to school officials, the projects needed the majority of the year for completion.

“No Place For Hate is not Just about three projects,” Jeremy Bennett told the students at the assembly. “It’s how you treat everyone everywhere, everyday with respect.”

Bennett is the assistant project director for No Place For Hate of the ADL.

According to Bennett, there are approximately 200 No Place For Hate schools throughout his region of the ADL, which includes Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and Southern New Jersey.

He said the program started in 2001 as a way to help provide schools and communities with a framework that would stand up to the various structures of hate.

One form would be school bullying, of which his examples to the assembly might be purposely leaving a classmate out of a playing a game or conversation.

“The designation is a way for us to show appreciation of the work they are doing,” Bennett said, prior to the assembly. “It’s a great grass-roots partnership which addresses hate in all forms.”

Dr. Zanthia Reddish, Ed.D., principal of Woodland Elementary, said the designation is in line with school and district teachings.

“It’s what we strive for as a school,” Reddish said. “We’re very much into inclusive practices, celebrating differences and empathy.”

According to Reddish, last school year Methacton School District adopted the “Positive Behavior Support” (PBS) model, which has a particular focus on anti-bullying strategies. 

Within this model, Reddish said that faculty and staff incorporate positive learning behavior lessons throughout the students’ school year, from reciting a morning anti-bullying pledge to school counselors entering classrooms and teaching about positive behavior.

The Word is ‘Empathy’

According to Linda Ehmer, Woodland Elementary school counselor, the Methacton elementary schools’ counselors meet during the summer to pick a word for students to focus on throughout the school year.

Last year, the word was “courage,” in commemoration of the 10^th-anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

This year, school counselors wanted to remind students of the lessons from the PBS model and chose the word “empathy.”

“Empathy is a very difficult concept for kids to understand,” Ehmer said.

 Wanting to help demonstrate empathy, Ehmer asked the assembled students, faculty and staff for help finding the owners of shoes she just happened to have lying in a pile on stage.  

When a shoe found its way to the owner, the student, faculty or staff would have to share how they were feeling abut the first day of school.

“Isn’t it funny that teachers and students were feeling a little nervous and that teachers and students were also feeling happy?” Ehmer asked the assembly. “We should always try and feel what it’s like to walk in someone’s shoes.”

According to Ehmer, prior to adopting the PBS model, Methacton School District had no uniform way of approaching the subject of bullying in its schools.

“Everyone was doing things about bullying, but we were all doing things differently,” Ehmer, said.

It’s for this reason that no other Methacton school has yet attained the No Place For Hate designation, as each school previously had their own methods.

“I saw the value in it, and wanted our students to have it,” Ehmer said.

She added that the No Place for Hate program has been a welcomed addition to the PBS model. She said that she is looking forward to receiving the designation next year, as the program needs to be annually renewed.

“It’s making a difference,” Ehmer said of the PBS model and No Place for Hate designation. “We’re going strong at the beginning of this year, and we’re continuing to do what we do best: Educate our students about everything.”

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For more information, visit www.noplaceforhate.org or Woodland Elementary School website.