BEND THE ARC:CU WORKSHOP ON CONFRONTING WHITE NATIONALISM IN SCHOOLS FEATURES CO-AUTHOR OF DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR SCHOOLS
Nearly 200 people attended a workshop hosted by Bend the Arc:CU on August 15 featuring Nora Flanagan, a Chicago high school teacher and co-author of Confronting White Nationalism in Schools—A Toolkit, a guide to identifying and preventing white nationalist recruitment of school-age children.
Although planned as far back as late June, the date unfortunately turned out to be timely because of the white-nationalist-fueled shootings in Gilroy and El Paso just the week before the workshop. They cities joined Charleston, Pittsburgh, Christchurch NZ, and Poway as just the latest examples of why Bend the Arc:CU felt immediate action was needed to stop white nationalist ideology before it takes root.
With neo-Nazis like Andrew Anglin bragging that his group targets children as young as 11, BTA:CU sent workshop invitations to every school-district superintendent and principals of every middle- and high school in Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Danville, Mahomet, Monticello, Tolono, and Normal.
“I had heard about all the recruitment efforts by white nationalists at schools, and then I started to see them at my school,” Flanagan told the group. “Patches on jackets, students handing out fliers, an editor of the school newspaper even wrote a column about needing a white history month. So, I was seeing what I found in my research actually coming to life in my own school.”
That's why she and co-authors Jessica Acee and Lindsay Schubiner decided to create “Confronting White Nationalism—A Toolkit,” because it was clear that schools had no idea how to handle these kinds of situations. Included in the Toolkit are tips on how to respond, how not to respond, and proactive steps for a school to take to inoculate itself against hate so that it won't be vulnerable to white nationalist recruitment.
A free pdf of the Toolkit is available from the Western States Center at: https://www.westernstatescenter.org/schools.
Missed the workshop? You can watch the entire workshop at: https://youtu.be/ymhAPsMuR2c .
