The purpose is to fight the prejudice that underlies most bullying, whether it’s about race, culture, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or mental or physical ability.
Anne O'Brien, mother of Phoebe Prince, center, delivers a victim impact statement at a hearing in Franklin - Hampshire Juvenile Court, in Northampton, in May. Elizabeth Dunphy Farris, former Northwest first assistant district attorney, left, and victim-witness advocate Jane Schevalier, right, are at her side. Some 300 teens are expected to convene in Springfield this weekend for an anti-bullying conference.SPRINGFIELD – About 300 young people from high schools in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will convene at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday to brainstorm about bullying and ways to end it.
The all-day program of discussions and workshops will be led by people their own age, said Andrea C. Kandel, director of the National Conference for Community and Justice, in Windsor, Conn., which organized the event.
“I’m so excited,” said Emma Murray, 16, of Westfield High School, part of a team of about 60 youths trained by the Community and Justice group to facilitate discussion.
The program at the Hall of Fame is called YES, Youth Establishing Strength, and its purpose is to fight the prejudice that underlies most bullying, whether it’s about race, culture, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or mental or physical ability.
While many anti-bullying programs have sprung up since the suicides of Carl Walker-Hoover and Phoebe Prince, Kandel said advice wasn’t coming from one group that was close to the problem.
“We weren’t asking the students – and they’re on the front lines,” said Kandel.
YES participants will vote on the five best ideas and strategies to emerge from the Hall of Fame conference, said Kandel, and those will be turned into activities and resources that can be used nationwide.
Adult speakers at the conference will include professor Patricia Griffin of the University of Massachusetts.
The National Conference for Community and Justice has been fighting bigotry since 1927. Back then, it was called the National Conference of Christians and Jews, formed in response to the virulent anti-Catholic abuse that brought down the presidential campaign of New York Governor Al Smith, a Catholic.
In the early days, members would travel thousands of miles to take their anti-bias message to the people. These days, YES will do its traveling virtually – on the Web, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks favored by teens.
In fact, the conference has scheduled breaks during which kids can “text or twitter” about what’s happening.
Besides Westfield High, Western Massachusetts schools selected for the YES conference were Amherst Regional, Monson and South Hadley High Schools, the Macduffie School in Granby, the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Early College Springfield at Holyoke Community College, Springfield Renaisance School, and Putnam Vocational and New Leadership Charter Schools in Springfield.
Each school contributed $250 to send a group of its students and one adult to the conference. Sponsors are Comcast, the Newman’s Own Foundation, Aetna, Hasbro, Travelers, and the Basketball Hall of Fame.