Civil Rights in the Schools

The mission of the Civil Rights Team Project is to increase the safety of high school, middle school and elementary school students and to reduce the incidence of bias-motivated harassment and violence in schools.

Subsumed within this Mission Statement are a number of critical objectives:

  • To train, encourage and support student members of Civil Rights Teams to be leaders, in collaboration with their teachers, administrations, parents and community members in their school communities, and to develop the skills and confidence to address incidents of bias and harassment.
  • To develop a collaborative effort between the Office of the Attorney General, local law enforcement agencies, Maine schools, parents and community members to address issues of bias and prejudice.
  • To train and encourage teachers and administrators at schools to identify and respond to incidents of bias and harassment before those incidents escalate to serious violence.

The Projected Outcomes for the Civil Rights Teams Project:

  • To train, encourage and empower high school, middle school and elementary school student members of Civil Rights Teams to be leaders within their school communities on issues relating to confronting bias, prejudice and harassment.
  • To increase the awareness and responsiveness of faculty and administrators of the problem of bias, prejudice and harassment by conducting in-service trainings at each of the participating schools.
  • To increase the awareness and commitment of schools, parents, and community members to address the problem of bias-motivated harassment.
  • To foster constructive relationships between the local school department, the local police department and the Civil Rights Teams Project.
  • To improve the school experience for members of targeted groups (racial, religious, national origin, sexual orientation, etc.) by increasing their feelings of safety within their schools and their understanding that differences will be accepted.
  • To insure a school climate that will decrease both the incidents of bias-motivated harassment and the routine use of hate language.