LIVERMORE FALLS — Fourth-grade students on the Civil Rights Team at Livermore Elementary School demonstrated how bias can affect people, and how to avoid negative outcomes associated with bias, at the Regional School Unit 73 board meeting last week.
“I believe in starting a civil rights team in the fourth and fifth grades,” school counselor and team adviser Grace Eaton said, “because in every school, we have civil rights issues. Bias is a prejudice against something or someone.”
Some of the examples presented on posters by the students included bias for or against differing hairstyles, religions, genders and many other traits. Student Ava Moffett told the board that it doesn’t matter what people wear as she displayed her poster showing varying types of clothing.
Jackson Pitcher created his poster on several different religions. He said he joined the Civil Rights Team because he wants to make the school a better place.
Ahlia Noll said she joined the team because she likes to help people.
“There are myths about boys and girls,” she said, as she explained that both can do many things, including those that are not traditionally male or female roles or jobs.
The team is part of the state’s Civil Rights Team Project, which began in 1996 and aims to identify and address bias in schools. More than 150 schools in the state have such teams.
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