Last year, as Newton and the United States in general experienced a number of highly visible and disturbing cases of hate speech, faculty and administrators at Newton South began to explore how this issue affects our students.  We conducted a survey last spring to find out whether students were hearing and observing hate speech, what kinds of speech were most prominent, and where that hate speech was most common.  That survey showed that hate speech was witnessed on a daily basis by 15% or more of our students, and convinced us that we need to continue our efforts.

Our next step is to ask some follow-up questions about those students who have been the targets of hate speech. Please spend a few minutes reflecting on your experience in the survey below.

Please review this definition of hate speech before giving your answers:
Hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing or display that attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability or sexual orientation.

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* 1. After reviewing our definition of hate speech, do you think you may have used hate speech yourself in the past without realizing it?

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* 2. If you answered "yes" to question one, how often did you use hate speech?

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* 3. Have you personally been the target of hate speech.  If "yes", what aspect of your identity do you feel was being targeted? (Choose all that apply.)  If "no", please skip to question 9.

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* 4. How often have you been the target of hate speech at Newton South? (choose one)

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* 5. Where have you experienced the hate speech? (choose all that apply)

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* 6. If you experienced hate speech online, who was the author? (check all that apply)

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* 7. When you experienced hate speech, do you think the person using it intended:

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* 8. We have found that the most powerful way for people to understand the impact of hate speech is to have people affected by it share their personal experiences.  Leaving out specific names, could you please describe what happened/is happening to you and how it made/it makes you feel.  Please include a note at the end if you would prefer that we do not use a portion of this response for future lessons.  We would make sure that you could not be identified from the portion we use.

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* 9. What grade are you in?

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* 10. Bearing in mind the categories in question 3, how do you identify yourself? (race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, male, female, socio-economic status, transgender or gender nonconforming, physical ability, learning ability, mental health, physical appearance)

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