Aurora's brand new Stop The Hate club
Unfortunately, acts of unnecessary hate towards innocent individuals occur everywhere daily, even at Aurora High School. This is why, as a school, we have decided to implement a new club. Stop The Hate club will be primarily student-led, and is dedicated to students communicating and navigating various ways to being an upstander and ultimately stop the unnecessary hate in the world, to the best of their ability.
While being primarily run by the students, the AP/CP English teacher, Ms. Hilston will be the advisor for the group. Ms. Hilston is the main reason for the Stop The Hate club. Back in January, Ms. Hilston took her two AP Language classes to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Due to the recent outbreaks of violence against the Jewish community, mainly on college campuses, this field trip was more than worthy of our time. The trip was part of a “Stop The Hate” program and placed focus on what being an upstander looks like. On this field trip, students, including myself were able to truly gain a better understanding of the Jewish culture and way of life. However, this trip was not to be taken lightly. We learned about the tragedies of The Holocaust in full. This was very appalling and real. All in all, the field trip was definitely what inspired me to approach Ms. Histon about starting an organization that had more of these conversations and took more of these trips.
I touched on the term “upstander” previously in my article. This term can be easily categorized as the opposite of a bystander. Someone who is an upstander is someone who doesn’t sit idly by and watch an act of hate. A couple of years ago, I was in a situation where I froze instead of sticking up for the individuals my age being oppressed by a grown man. The situation still bothers me, which is why at Stop The Hate we will be discussing ways to intervene safely and appropriately, instead of standing and observing, doing nothing.
I am very glad that I have great people at Aurora High School, like Ms. Hilston and principal Mr. Hayes, who allowed this club to take place. I think a club dedicated to being an upstander and stopping the hat is long overdue at Aurora High School, and I am very excited to kick off our first meeting which is Monday, April 22nd in Ms. Hilston’s room (213). With the school year ending soon, that will be our only meeting for this school year; however, we will hit the ground running next August for our next meeting, making sure Greenmen are encouraged to be upstanders to start the school year.
By: Harrison Mullin