Healing the Hate: A National Hate Crime Prevention Curriculum for Middle Schools

Violence and prejudice are learned behaviors and are not inevitable. Young people, adults, school systems, youth programs, and entire communities are implementing programs to reduce prejudice and violence with promising results. Educators play a vital role in creating a climate of respect and preventing hate crime victimization.

Despite the extent of the bias crime problem and the strong promise offered by the emerging fields of violence prevention and prejudice reduction, even the basic tenets of hate crime prevention have not found their way into most of the curricula used in middle schools.

This is designed for middle school teachers and other professionals who work with youth, this curriculum addresses the extent of hate crime in America and instructs youth in strategies that are proving effective in reducing hate crimes, which are motivated by the offender's bias against race, religion, ethnic/national origin, or sexual orientation.