The Salt Lake City School District hopes to take steps to promote respect, reduce hate, strengthen community and encourage civic responsibility through a Unity Summit.
The summit, held Friday at the Capitol, is part of a larger district campaign to become the nation’s first “dignity district.”
“We want to reduce the contempt in our community, generally and more specifically, in our district,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Grant. “Our emphasis is on dignity.”
To achieve this, the district uses the Dignity Index, an eight-point scale that measures the level of contempt or dignity in a selected speech passage.
Lower scores (1-4) reflect a lack of dignity and the presence of contempt, with the lowest score (1) showing the most contempt. The higher scores (5-8) reflect dignity-based language, with the highest score (8) reflecting the most dignity.
“To further this in the district, we’re getting teachers involved, and students (are) definitely involved. The student leaders get it from the beginning – this difference between contempt and hate – they see it in the community around them and they find ways to say to each other, ‘That’s not treating someone with dignity,’” Grant said.
The summit is the first cog in a year-long process to get the initiative off the ground. It welcomed approximately 150 students from East High School, Highland High School, Horizonte Instruction and Training Center and West High School. Most of the students in attendance are involved in student government groups at their respective schools.
West High student body president Asher Lucas said he looks forward to starting the conversation about eradicating hate in school communities with the goal of promoting school safety.
“As student body president, I have seen firsthand how people felt unsafe or hated at our school. Seeing that in our community has given me the desire to come here and help eradicate that,” Asher said . .
During the summit, students will listen to several speakers, watch a film, get an overview of the Dignity Index and participate in a panel discussion led by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, before breaking into school groups to discuss key points from the top and have time to think through journaling.
District leaders hope that starting the conversation with student leaders will help spread the initiative through the schools and district.
“Student leaders are the future of what’s going to happen in Salt Lake District and they set the tone for their schools. That’s what’s important,” Grant said. “It’s quite impressive to make their voices heard, to have them see themselves as part of a larger group and to make a greater effort to change the dynamics in our schools and move toward dignity in our interactions. They’re coming up with all kinds of ways to build this into the structure of education and the school day.”
Especially at a time of divisiveness among young people, the district hopes this larger campaign, focused on dignity and respect, can help lower the temperature.
Students attend a Unity Summit in Salt Lake City on Friday. The Salt Lake City School District is looking to take steps to promote respect, reduce hate, strengthen community and encourage civic responsibility through a Unity Summit Friday. | Jason Olsen, Salt Lake City School District
“There is a lot of disdain in our conversation with each other about difficult issues,” Grant said. “We can treat each other with dignity on the athletic field; we can treat each other with dignity when we advocate for different causes; we can treat each other with dignity when we share our differences. This is about how we treat each other as human beings… that we respect the dignity of others, regardless of their position.”
In an announcement for the launch of the district’s quest to become a “dignity district,” Grant said the initiative is not about ending disagreement, but about disagreeing with dignity.
The summit was organized in partnership with several community organizations, such as the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, Community Partners Against Hate, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, the Salt Lake Human Rights Commission and the United Jewish Federation of Utah.
“I hope (the summit) will create conversations we need to root out that hate for every group of students in our communities and spread ideas about how we can be safer in our schools,” Asher said.
