June 2007 Newsletter
In this issue:
- It's Still Elementary 10th anniversary campaign coming this Fall!
- Still seeking students for our new film Straightlaced
- Iowa passes Safe School Legislation
- New anti-bias partnership with Girls, Inc.
- Let's Get Real Youth Facilitation with Ally Action
- And more!
It’s STILL Elementary 10th Anniversary Campaign Coming This Fall!
It’s been more than a decade since we first released our landmark film It’s Elementary—Talking About Gay Issues in School. To commemorate this milestone and to reinvigorate attention on the importance of this issue, we are releasing a companion documentary about the effect the film has had over the last decade in education and on public opinion. This hour-long film also includes interviews with some of the original students from It’s Elementary who are now in college. Look for the special anniversary DVD and companion documentary this fall.Casting for Straightlaced
We are in the final round of production of our latest film in the RFAP, Straightlaced—Tied up By Gender Roles (working title). Currently, we are looking for LGBT teenagers whose lives have been affected by anti-gay attitudes, and straight teenagers who identify themselves on all points of the gender spectrum and/or who encounter gender-based stereotyping. If you know someone willing to share their experience, please contact staff producer Sue Chen at 1-800-405-3322 or send her an email.Iowa Passes Safe Schools Legislation
A new safe schools law recently passed in the Iowa legislature with bipartisan support and was signed by Governor Chet Culver. Crafted to protect all students from bullying and harassment, the new law specifically enumerates protected categories, including race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. This makes Iowa the 10th state to legally protect students from harassment and bullying based on sexual orientation and only the fifth to protect students based on gender expression.To help Iowa educators find concrete ways to support and protect all students and increase awareness about diversity issues, WEM staff members Cristy Chung, Serian Strauss and Ryan Schwartz headed to Osceola, Iowa to lead Let’s Get Real and That’s a Family! professional development workshops. Hosted by Green Valley Area Education Agency, Southwestern Community College and the Rural Iowa Crisis Center. Cristy, Serian and Ryan provided 60 educators and youth service providers with the training and tools needed to address prejudice-based teasing and bullying in schools and communities.
New Anti-Bias Partnership with Girl’s Inc.
This spring, the RFAP national program director Michael Courville presented at a panel discussion sponsored by Girls Inc. of the Island City in Alameda, CA, about girls and bullying. Michael shared research and promising practices that have emerged from the success of RFAP’s national safe schools work and professional development workshops on the prejudice behind bullying. Girl’s Inc. will be utilizing the Let’s Get Real anti-bullying and prejudice prevention curriculum with students this fall and we will be looking to expand our collaboration with Girls Inc. nationally.Watch Michael and Girls Inc. of the Island City executive director, Karen Kenney, on ABC’s View From the Bay.
Let’s Get Real Youth Facilitation with Ally Action
Ally Action along with the RFAP recently trained high school and college-aged students to present peer-to-peer education programs about bullying and prejudice using our film Let’s Get Real. The pilot program at Portola Middle School in Contra Costa County, California launched to rave reviews from students and teachers last month, and plans to replicate it at other sites are in high gear.Other WEM News
Gerbode Foundation Honors Debra Chasnoff: We are proud to announce that executive director/senior producer Debra Chasnoff was awarded a prestigious Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation fellowship this year in recognition of outstanding service as a leader of a public interest nonprofit organization.Deadly Deception on DVD: WEM’s Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short Subject that helped shut down General Electric’s nuclear materials production is now available on DVD. Deadly Deception uncovers the disastrous health and environmental side effects caused by the production of nuclear materials by the GE Corporation. The film juxtaposes GE’s rosy “We Bring Good Things to Life” commercials with the true stories of people whose lives were devastated by the company’s involvement in testing and making nuclear weapons. Buy Deadly Deception on DVD.
WEM Goes to Camp with Hidden Villa: Earlier this month, WEM and Hidden Villa, a nonprofit environmental education organization in Los Altos Hills, California that shares WEM’s goal of teaching respect for diversity of all kinds to children and youth, joined together to raise support at an event called “Spotlight on Diversity”. We were also joined by special guest Brian Hand, one of the students interviewed in Let’s Get Real, who spoke about his experiences with anti-gay name-calling and bullying. Now a college student, Brian spoke about the incredibly positive affect his participation in Let’s Get Real has had on his life.
The Respect For All Project is a nonprofit program of Women's Educational Media and is supported by the generous contributions of many individuals, corporations and foundations.
If you share our vision that all children and families should be safe and respected in their schools and communities, please consider making a donation today.
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1-800-405-3322
info@respectforall.org
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