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The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
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"The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project"

CSS_NYS Note: Court TV did a broadcast on this program and you can access some of the video clips at http://www.courttv.com/diversity/video2.html. You can also search the Court TV website using the program title (in quotes). If anyone has seen the training package please let us know how to obtain.

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This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Debut of "Opening the Door to Diversity:Voices from the Middle School" Program Successful
What Happened Around the Nation
Contacts:LaRae Marsik or Tracy Hollingsworth, AT&T BIS, 720-875-5273

Englewood, Colorado - On October 26, 1999, Opening the Door to Diversity: Voices from the Middle School, inspired by AT&T Cable Services employee Michael Arnold-Keith, aired live on Court TV and AT&T Cable Services LO channels at noon (ET). The interactive classroom set at AT&T's National Digital Television Center connected middle school students in Littleton, Colo., with students in Hayward, Calif., Cheyenne, Wyo., and Chicago, Ill., via the AT&T@Home broadband Internet service. Every middle school in the nation received the program's curriculum materials, offering more than 15,000 schools the chance to participate in the event.

"For nearly a year, AT&T BIS, AT&T Cable Services, and AT&T@Home employees worked to create a forum that would give middle school students the chance to discuss diversity in an open and interactive manner," said Lela Cocoros, Executive Vice President of Communications for AT&T BIS. "We are heartened by the overwhelming participation we experienced from local education leaders, political leaders, media, students, parents and employees, and are very proud of the success of Opening the Door to Diversity:Voices from the Middle School."

Following is an overview of the AT&T events hosted around the nation.

NATIONAL DIGITAL TELEVISION CENTER (Littleton, Colo.)
Twenty-seven students from five Denver area middle schools gathered at AT&T's National Digital Television Center in Littleton and participated in the live program moderated by Al Roker and Catherine Crier. Students at several area middle schools, including Flood Middle School in Englewood, watched the program. In addition to Court TV, the NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV in Denver, carried the program live.

CAREY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
The Governor of Wyoming issued a proclamation declaring October 26th Diversity Day for the state of Wyoming. At Carey Junior High School in Cheyenne, three students participated in the national program via streaming video over AT&T@Home. AT&T hosted 700 students for a local version of the national broadcast called "Voices from Wyoming." AT&T also brought three students from the Wind River Range Indian Reservation to participate in the discussion. The national broadcast aired on all Wyoming cable systems, and the local version was carried by the CBS affiliates in Casper and Cheyenne. KGAB-AM radio and all of its Wyoming affiliates carried the audio for the local and national shows. Attending dignitaries included the director of H.O.P.E. (a Hispanic organization), mayor of Cheyenne, Cheyenne chief of police, director of Youth Alternatives, president of the NAACP in Cheyenne, mayor of Laramie, Wyoming Representative Barbara Cubin and the Laramie County sheriff.

EBERHART ELEM. SCHOOL (Chicago, Ill.)
Three students from Eberhart participated in the live AT&T@Home feed to the NDTC. More than 20 other students chatted on-line with fellow students at NDTC. NBC's local affiliate in Chicago WMAQ-TV did a live simulcast of the program. VIPs attending included the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools and numerous district-level officials. Also attending were representatives from the Chicago Human Relations Commission, the Eberhart School Council and representatives from Facing History, Facing Ourselves program, which is used in the school. The Chicago Public Schools newsletter will feature the project in its next edition.

ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE SCHOOL (Richardson, Texas)
This event involved a community screening of the program at St. Paul the Apostle Elementary School. A local guidance counselor led a roundtable discussion with students following the program. Two city council members and the city manager from Richardson attended the screening and participated in the discussion. Channel 52, the Hispanic channel, conducted an interview with a bilingual student. Channel 8 also hosted a town hall meeting Tuesday, Oct. 26, on Technology:Visions for the Future that included AT&T featuring the technology that was used during the "Opening the Door to Diversity" broadcast.

BRODY MIDDLE SCHOOL (Des Moines, Iowa)
250 students from Brody Middle School in Des Moines participated in the program at the school. 100 of these students were from the school's Tolerance to Acceptance to Diversity (TAD) group, which is made up of students identified by the school as being at-risk for causing diversity-related issues; students who were identified by their parents as in need of more diversity education; and, students who asked to go through the school's diversity training program. Attending VIPs included a Des Moines city council member, four school board members and the district's middle school director. The Iowa program began with remarks from the school principal and AT&T Cable Services General Manager Mike Giampietro, followed by a short video on diversity and the live broadcast. Students held a 30-minute discussion following the program and heard from members of the school board about diversity issues facing their school district. As a follow-up exercise, the 250 participants in the live program committed to sit with someone other than a friend at lunch and talk about the show. AT&T will provide copies of the program for viewing by the rest of the student body and their parents.

FLOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL (Englewood, Colo.)
More than 300 students viewed the program in the school auditorium. The program also aired in three classrooms. The Englewood mayor, chief information officer and a judge attended the event.

LINCOLN PLAZA (Downtown Reading, Penn.)
Seventy-three people attended a VIP screening, discussion and lunch. The screening's audience included school principals, teachers, guidance counselors, elected officials and social services agencies. The system's LO production unit taped the program for distribution to schools.

SALT LAKE CITY (Utah)
The system's LO production department made the program available to area middle schools so they could tape the program for future use. Many schools are expected to utilize the curriculum developed in conjunction with the program.

SOUTH MIDDLE SCHOOL (Hartford, Conn.)
Selected students who worked with the lesson plans viewed the program in the school library and other students viewed an in-house telecast to classrooms. Hartford Mayor Peters and Connecticut State Attorney General Blumenthal spoke to students before the program aired, and State Commissioner of Education Sergi moderated a post-screening discussion.

GREATER PORTLAND (Oregon)
All systems in Corvallis, Eugene, Salem, McMinnville and the Portland Metro area carried the event "live," representing approximately 525,000 customers. In the Greater Portland Market the program aired on three separate channels: Court TV, the Educational Access Channel, and AT&T's Local Origination Channels. The Portland and Vancouver area systems repeated the program several times from the 26th to the 28th. The program was carried "live" in several school districts including Vancouver (45,000 students), Portland (58,000 students), and Beaverton (18,000 students). All major area school districts obtained copies of the curriculum materials and expect to use them in the coming weeks and months.

WILDWOOD, NJ
The city held an evening screening of the program. After the program was rebroadcast, seven local students participated in a diversity panel discussion that was shown on a local origination channel.

AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is one of the nation's leading providers of video and broadband services. Formerly known as Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) prior to the Company's recent merger with AT&T, AT&T Broadband & Internet Services provides cable television entertainment and information programming services to more than 10 million customers across the country. The Company also provides a host of advanced services through its Digital Cable offerings and its high-speed cable Internet service AT&T@Home, and is actively developing cable telephony services. AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T), the world's leader in telecommunications services and technology.

From:SARATOGANY@aol.com
Tue, 21 Mar 2000 08:10:40 -0500 (EST)
Subject:"Opening the Door to Diversity" middle school lesson plan online
To:SARATOGANY@aol.com, bdm3g@gateway.net

Msg fwd by:
The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
Email to:saratogany@aol.com

"The Actual and Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project"

1. "Opening the Door to Diversity" (AT&T and others)
2. "Talking to Your Child About Hate and Prejudice" (ADL)

(1) FREE middle school curriculum called "Opening the Door to Diversity":

The National Middle School Association, in conjunction with AT&T, Court TV, the Anti-Defamation League, Cable in the Classroom, the Education Development Center, and the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, now makes available the resource "Opening the Door to Diversity." This FREE resource guide contains numerous lesson plans and classroom activities. It includes sexual orientation in its definition of a hate crime. To access the lesson plans, go to: http://www.nmsa.org/ click on "What's new" and click on "Opening the Door to Diversity." Teachers can purchase a video tape of a show about the curriculum for $17.95 by calling 1800-888-4580.

The American Family Association considers this resource ("Opening the Door to Diversity") to be a pro-homosexual tool. For the AFA Journal's angry opinion of this curriculum effort go to:
http://www.afajournal.org/cover/front_page_1.asp
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(2) "Talking to Your Child About Hate and Prejudice" on the Anti-Defamation League's website, can be found at:
http://www.adl.org/frames/front_Hate_Prejudice.html

Conservative News, March 15, 2000
(E-Mail:shogenson@cnsnews.com )
( http://www.cnsnews.com )

Corporations Taking Diversity Training to Middle School Students

By Ben Anderson
CNS Staff Writer

(http://CNSNews.com) - A corporate-sponsored effort to "encourage tolerance" among the nation's teenagers that includes discussions of homosexuality in the context of tolerance has raised hackles among some consumers.

One consumer who received word of the AT&T communications program "Opening the Door to Diversity" told http://CNSNews.com on condition of anonymity, "I'm very concerned. This is not something that AT&T should be getting into. They provide communications. It's not their job to indoctrinate the country."

Last fall, in response to the beating death of homosexual student Matthew Shepherd, Court TV and AT&T Broadband and Internet Services (AT&TBIS), working with the Departments of Education and Justice and the National Middle School Association (NMSA), distributed a five part lesson plan entitled "Opening the Door to Diversity" to every middle school in the country.

According to AT&T, the effort - which springs from the company's "deep sense of commitment to our communities" - is part of a "nationwide program to foster the principles of diversity and tolerance among middle-school children" and is one of the most far-reaching initiatives undertaken by the communications group.

Repeated phone calls by http://CNSNews.com to AT&TBIS for comment were not returned, nor were calls to Wyoming school officials.

The lesson plans were prepared with material and information from the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Reference sources for the diversity curriculum includes material from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.

"As the nation's largest cable provider, we have an ethical and moral obligation to help our communities deal with the issues that concern them," said AT&TBIS executive Leo Hindery in promoting the program. "'Opening the Door to Diversity' does that by providing the context for communities to address prejudice, and by focusing on a generation that, if given the right tools, will make a real, substantive change in American society."

http://CNSNews.com obtained a copy of a note from Hindery to the cable company's subscribers that accompanied monthly statements last fall. In the message, Hindery claims that merely setting internal corporate policy on tolerance is insufficient.

"We have undertaken a number of initiatives in the last several years to foster diversity within our company. But addressing the issues internally, we believe, is not enough. We need to help our communities do likewise," Hindery wrote.

The program was initiated after the brutal beating death of a homosexual student at the University of Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, on the suggestion of Michael Arnold-Keith in Bellevue, Washington, who suggested that his employer respond to the incident since it owns the cable franchise in Laramie, Wyo., where the killing occurred.

Lesson plans posted on the Court TV web site provide some insight into the goals and objectives of the "Opening the Door to Diversity" curriculum.

Lesson one sets the stage by calling on "students and teachers to use effective communication skills when discussing diversity topics." The lesson plan then leads students to "explore different ways of communicating and examine the reasons why they should be careful listeners and thoughtful speakers."

"To learn how to respect differences in society at large, young adolescents first must become more tolerant of their peers," according to the rationale in lesson two. In the third series, middle-school students "develop a working definition of diversity."

According to lesson four, students "examine how people develop stereotypes and how stereotypes can lead to prejudice."

Students are asked to write down the first thought that comes to mind about cheerleaders, construction workers, doctors, teachers librarians, gang members, athletes, honor roll students nurses and dancers.

After a series of group activities focusing on stereotypes, the lesson plan suggests ending the class with a "short reflective writing exercise." Themes include, "How can people combat stereotypes?," "Have you ever challenged yourself to reject a stereotype?," and "Can stereotypes ever be justified?"

To date, no school district has adopted the program, though several across the country have indicated that they might be interested in using it. http://CNSNews.com phone calls to several school districts about the program were not returned.

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