Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of Arizona recognized 24 K-12 schools throughout the state as “No Place For Hate” (NPFH) participants.
There are four required steps to qualifying as a NPFH school: register, create a NPFH committee, sign the NPFH Pledge, and complete at least three school-wide NPFH activities. An additional recommended step for schools concerns engaging in “A World of Difference” anti-bias and allyship workshops.
Despite the ADL’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity, NPFH campaigns may alienate certain classes of students and educators — such as Christians.
According to the ADL, a valid NPFH committee “include[s] students, staff, administrators, and family members that reflect the diversity of the school community.” They are tasked with identifying bias and bullying within their school and host activities to right those identified wrongs.
Variations of the required pledge exist, and they usually differ between elementary and middle or high schools. For elementary schools, one form of the pledge reads as follows:
I promise to do my best to treat everyone fairly. I promise to do my best to be kind to everyone — even if they are not like me. If I see someone being hurt or bullied, I will tell a teacher. Everyone should be able to feel safe and happy in school. I want our school to be No Place for Hate.
Most versions of the pledge for middle and high schools include more social justice concepts. One example is reproduced below:
I will seek to gain understanding of those who are different from myself. I will speak out against prejudice and discrimination. I will reach out to support those who are targets of hate. I will promote respect for people and help foster a prejudice-free school. I believe that one person can make a difference — no person can be an ‘innocent’ bystander when it comes to opposing hate. I recognize that respecting individual dignity and promoting inter-group harmony are the responsibilities of all students.
And another:
I pledge from this day forward to do my best to combat prejudice and to stop those who, because of hate or ignorance, would hurt anyone or violate their civil rights. I will try at all times to be aware of my own biases and seek to gain understanding of those who I perceive as being different from myself. I will speak out against all forms of prejudice and discrimination. I will reach out to support those who are targets of hate. I will think about specific ways my community members can promote respect for people and create a prejudice free zone. I firmly believe that one person can make a difference and that no person can be an “innocent” bystander when it comes to opposing hate. I recognize that respecting individual dignity, achieving equality and promoting intergroup harmony are the responsibilities of all people. By signing this pledge, I commit myself to creating a respectful community.
Valid NPFH activities that count toward the three needed to qualify the school must be preapproved by the national ADL and tackle bias, prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, social justice, inclusion, diversity, name-calling, or bullying.
The World of Difference workshops include programs for students titled “Becoming An Ally: Interrupting Name Calling and Bullying,” “Peer Leadership,” “Peer Training,” and “General Anti-Bias Training.” For the most part, each workshop engages in concepts like prejudice, bigotry, diversity, inclusivity, and equity.
Those steps are required, but there are a plethora of other activities and workshops offered to educators and students vying for NPFH recognition. In June and July, the ADL is hosting a month-long “anti-bias” course for teachers to learn how to eliminate bias while making “equitable and inclusive classrooms.”
The 24 Arizona schools certified as NPFH schools were: C.I. Waggoner Elementary, Desert Meadows, Eagle Ridge Elementary School, Emerson School, Horizon Honors Elementary School, Whittier Elementary, Kyrene de las Manitas, Kyrene del Cielo, Kino Junior High School, Cocopah Middle School, Cooley Middle School, Desert Canyon Middle School, Greenway Middle School, Shea Middle School, Vista Verde Middle School, Dobson High School, Higley High School, Mountain View High School, North High School, Red Mountain High School, Verrado High School, Trailside Performing Arts Academy, New Way Academy, and Rancho Solano Preparatory School.
Centennial Middle School received an honorable mention.
The 24 schools will receive a customized banner designating them as a NPFH school for this year.
Cocopah Middle School’s principal required teachers to attend a training on supporting and affirming LGBTQ+ lifestyles in children, and where they established a Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Club that won an award for coercing the district to allow students to replace their given, or “deadname,” with a preferred name matching their gender identity. GSAs may also stand for Gay-Straight Alliance.
There are over 1,800 schools nationwide who qualify as NPFH.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Northern Arizona University (NAU) students will have to take a 12-credit general studies program focused on diversity. Following initial reports on their plans, NAU hid the DCCC page behind a university login page. (Archived link here). In doing so, they also blocked access to links leading to the DCCC meeting dates, agendas, and minutes; diversity requirements; how individuals could propose a “Diversity Designation” course; and an outline of their curriculum creation and review processes.
The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) approved NAU’s new diversity program last October.
It appears that NAU shielded the DCCC website from the public eye after City Journal reported about the new diversity curriculum. A web cache of the page taken on May 14 allows individuals to see the DCCC website, not an NAU login page. City Journal issued their report on May 24, offering an in-depth assessment on how NAU’s aim for the program was to only include critical theory’s definition of diversity.
NAU also removed DCCC’s notes (archived here) from last September that acknowledged how the level of ambition the undertaking demands. Yet, the DCCC projected that it would cause NAU to take the lead on their competition.
“The 12 credits of diversity requirements are unprecedented and puts [sic] NAU at the forefront of higher education,” read the notes.
"The celebration of diversity helps accelerate our progress toward a more perfect union. I am more optimistic than ever of the potential of our university and the values and support of our community. Happy Juneteenth!" –@naupresidentpic.twitter.com/w8GKrwzTIK
The initiative is the latest from the Diversity Curriculum Committee (DCC) formed by NAU’s Faculty Senate. The committee declared in their proposal that NAU is lacking in diversity requirements. (Archived link here).
The DCC explained that students will be required to take three credits in each of the following areas: U.S. Ethnic Diversity, Global Diversity, Indigenous Peoples, and Intersectionality. Within those areas, there will be focuses catered to the arts and humanities, scientific literacy and methods, and social and political worlds.
More won’t just be required of the students; the DCC proposed that NAU hire a director for the new diversity program; increase hires in Ethnic Studies, Applied Indigenous Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies; establish retention mechanisms for faculty engaged in “diversity objectives;” create a faculty learning community focused on diversity; create a faculty professional development program on diversity curriculum; hire a Chief Diversity Officer; ensure course releases or other compensation for female and minority faculty; require faculty to engage in more diversity work and challenges; and establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program within each college in NAU.
NAU plans to initiate a soft launch of their revamped diversity program this fall, with a full launch in fall 2023.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A new and innovative tuition-free charter school in Mesa will grant high school students trade certifications along with their diplomas.
American Leadership Academy (ALA) Applied Technologies will offer students the opportunity to earn certifications in automotive technologies, aviation technologies, business and finance, construction technologies, cosmetology, education, first responders, health services, hospitality, or general technology. Each of the 10 programs will have its own lab, workshop, kitchen, or salon to accomplish industry training.
All their trade programs begin junior year, with the exception of Aviation Mechanics and Cosmetology due to certification hour requirements. Transportation to school won’t be provided. ALA estimated that each grade level would have 600 students, or 60 per grade level in each program.
In a recent promotional video, ALA featured one alumna and its emergency medical services (EMS) program.
ALA operates 12 other schools across the valley: nine K-6 schools, and three schools covering the 7th through 12th grades. They are all A-rated schools. The academy operates around the acronym “R.A.I.S.E.” meaning respect, accountability, integrity, service, and classroom; it also aims to instill a “moral and wholesome environment” for students.
According to their latest construction update from last week, the new school has entered its final stages of the building process.
Registration remained open as of press time.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A class within Phoenix’s elite private Catholic high school, Brophy Preparatory School, lectured students that Fox News host Tucker Carlson was anti-Semitism, anti-Mexican, and anti-African American.
A photo obtained by AZ Free News featured a slide shown in a “History of the Catholic Church” class, equating Carlson with controversial 20th century Roman Catholic priest Charles Coughlin. Carlson is Episcopalian.
“Tucker Carlson = today’s fr. Charles Coughlin,” read the slide. “Key message: White American Christians should be very afraid[.] You’re being replaced! (Great Replacement Theory).”
Coughlin pioneered political radio, garnering around 30 million listeners in his program’s heyday. He denounced the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) though he expressed opposition to banks and Jewish people in power. He opposed communism but was equally against free market capitalism, going so far as to support Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) New Deal initially. Coughlin advanced the term “social justice.”
For years, the mainstream media discussed how Democrats were relying on and influencing demographic changes to skew voting in their favor, quipping “demographics are destiny.” The 2020 election results cast doubts on Democrats’ long-term plan as more of a theory, when voter turnout reflected that Republicans were the party of multiracial, working-class voters in practice. However, polling suggested that younger Hispanic and black individuals were more likely to vote Democrat.
The slide then listed evidence to support its claims of Carlson’s racism toward Jewish, Mexican, and black people. It listed various claims put forth by Carlson. On charges of antisemitism, the slide summarized Carlson’s statements that George Soros, a Jewish man, and international forces secretly influence politics and finances.
On charges of anti-Mexican sentiment, the slide summarized Carlson’s statements that the government tolerates mass migration in order to reduce white Americans’ power. The slide also included an out-of-context reference to Carlson’s belief that mass unchecked immigration leads to poorer, dirtier living conditions.
Carlson’s full remarks focused on peoples’ concerns over the quality of areas where large numbers of immigrants settled and how elected leaders ignored those concerns. He also characterized immigrants as “nice people” and highlighted concerns from Tijuana, Mexico citizens over the spikes in crime and uncleanliness accompanying Honduran immigrants— something mainstream media and the classroom slideshow neglected to spotlight.
“[Immigrants are] nice people, no one doubts that, but as an economic matter this is insane. It’s indefensible, so no one even tries to defend it. Instead our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided,” stated Carlson. “Immigration is a form of atonement. Previous leaders of our country committed sins; we must pay for those sins by welcoming an endless chain of migrant caravans. That’s the argument they make.”
Finally, on charges of anti-African American sentiments, the slide pointed out how Carlson called George Floyd protestors “criminal mobs,” and how he insisted on the necessity of seeing Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT scores. The slide neglected to include the fact that Carlson was referring to those engaged in rioting when accusing George Floyd protestors of criminal mob behavior.
“Reason and process and precedent mean nothing to them. They use violence to get what they want immediately,” wrote Carlson. “On television, hour by hour, we watch these people — criminal mobs — destroy what the rest of us have built.”
Concerning Jackson’s LSAT scores, Carlson shared doubts that Jackson had a record of legal mastery.
“[An LSAT score] would settle the question, conclusively, whether she’s a once-in-a-generation legal talent,” stated Carlson. “It would seem like Americans in a democracy have a right to know that and much more before giving her a lifetime appointment.”
Tucker: It might be time for Joe Biden to let us know Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT score was. Why wouldn’t he tell us that… pic.twitter.com/boPHU5PnMd
A nonprofit promised an entire grade of elementary school students free college tuition should they graduate from high school. Not only will the tuition be covered: books as well as room and board will be covered as well.
The 63 third graders attend Phoenix’s Bernard Black Elementary School in Roosevelt School District No. 66. A nonprofit in Avondale, the Rosztoczy Foundation, raised the funds through their College Promise program. The foundation has also provided scholarships for Hungarian students to research with U.S. college professors.
The students must graduate from their elementary school, then graduate from a school within the Phoenix Union High School District. The students may apply their tuition at any one of Arizona’s state universities or community colleges. They also have the option to attend a private or public post-secondary institution outside of Arizona, with the possibility of receiving funding up to the maximum available to students attending comparable in-state universities or community colleges.
While in college, the student must maintain a 2.0 GPA to continue receiving the scholarship. They must also be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credit hours each semester, with regular progress toward a degree. The scholarship may only apply for four consecutive years. If the student finishes their undergraduate before four years are up, they may apply the remaining scholarship toward their graduate school fees and costs.
The third graders were surprised with the news at an assembly at the end of April.
This isn’t the first time that the Rosztoczy Foundation has done this: in 2012, they awarded about 80 third graders in the Michael Anderson School within the Avondale Elementary District with the same scholarship. They would have graduated high school last year, and those enrolled in college will be completing their freshman year this month.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A little but major piece of Arizona was planted recently in the downtown of California’s largest city. Arizona State University (ASU) expanded their operations to include a Los Angeles campus last fall through their ASU Local initiative. The new campus offers a hybrid of online and in-person learning.
ASU President Michael Crowe explained to the Los Angeles Times that the number of those rejected from University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) drove the decision to establish ASU in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times partnered with ASU to offer 20 self-paced online courses; subscribers have the added perk of 25 percent off other online courses.
The satellite campus moved into the historic building that once housed the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. ASU celebrated the launch with a tour of the facilities last August. The well over 87,000 square feet making up the satellite campus, dubbed the latest “ASU California Center,” cost $40 million to renovate. Construction began in September 2020, ending just ahead of the open house last August.
ASU's California Center opened its doors in 2021, bringing new possibilities to local learners as ASU Local's newest college experience. Read more about these programs in the latest edition of #ASUThrive magazine, in mailboxes now.
ASU California Center students receive a 20 percent discount on the online, nonresident tuition, which can range from $13,000 to $16,000 annually. Efforts to establish this Los Angeles location launched officially in 2019.
ASU Local also has locations in Washington, D.C. and Yuma. Like the newly-established Los Angeles campus, the D.C. campus was settled in a historic building that came with a similar price tag: $35 million.
ASU began expanding into California over a decade ago. In 2013, ASU announced its other ASU California Center in Santa Monica. They have also accrued partnerships with 116 California community colleges to ensure students advance to earn a bachelor’s degree.
