No Place for Hate has become an active initiative at West to build a welcoming and supportive community. The Anti Defamation League (ADL), the organization that supports No Place for Hate, was established in 1913 to end the discrimination of Jewish people. This mission has now expanded to cover the discrimination of anybody due to their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender etc. They have developed to be an international institute with anti-bias and diversity education that is implemented in schools and law enforcement agencies globally.

Here at West, ADL has been running for their 5th year and is tasked with completing three projects every year. On April 12th, No Place for Hate held a panel discussion on prior projects and starting a new assignment. On May 23rd, members of the committee will be attending an end of the year ceremony at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Their previous project was a Conversations about Race Video Broadcast that was shown to students during lunch and homeroom. This video consisted of a conversation with students from various clubs including Men of West, Peer Leaders, Latinos at West, Gay Straight Alliance and several other groups. This engaged students in the No Place for Hate theme, Diversity=Strength. Their current project is “Humans of West” emulating the popular Facebook initiative “Humans of New York”. As part of Humans of West, students have their pictures taken and they share their life experiences. Through this project, other students can observe situations of their peers and reflect and even connect with them having shared a similar experience themselves. Lastly, before their End-of-School Year Designation Celebration, they intend on training students with the ability to handle situations concerning discrimination in and outside of school.