Human Rights Day is celebrated worldwide on the 10th of December. This day is celebrated to recognize and appreciate all people no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, neurodiversity or identification, etc. This international holiday is set in place to promote equality and to mark the date that, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: on December 10, 1948, right after World War II and the Holocaust.
The Social Justice Club will be holding the second annual Morgan Social Justice Club on Thursday, December 7, from 7:35 – 11:15 am. Since the workshop was very successful last year, social justice members want to include interested students and a diverse panel and audience. Students who wish to attend or serve on a student panel should see Mrs. Chausse or Social Justice members. The club is using this Google Form with students to gather this information.
Last year, on December 8, 2022, Morgan celebrated Human Rights day with a Human Rights Day workshop. The event was filled with many speakers, ranging from students to teachers to members of the community. There were thirteen students who sat in front of a large group of people and impressively shared their stories of struggles they faced on the equality spectrum. These students were: Isabella Johnson, Muntara Singh, Abel Rodriguez, Eli Barden, Noelle Main, Mia DiGiandomenico, Aerie Yang, Anika Hayes, Sara Gelven, Vivian Nguyen, Isabelle West, Emely Andino, and Jill Demaio.
The faculty on the staff panel included English teacher Julie Frydenborg, Multilingual Learner teacher Alina Gonzalez, Math teacher John Madura, Math teacher Julien Milcent, School Counselor Moheba Sayed, Culinary teacher Sue Murphy, and Spanish teacher Karla Rivadeniera.
The community members on the community panel included Lindsey Robinson, Abby Roccapriore, Gurmeet Singh, and Tom Shultz. After everyone shared their stories and experiences, participants went down to the upper hub to view different displays from a variety of our classes here at Morgan that targeted different Human Rights issues.
After all the positive feedback from last year, The Social Justice Club will be holding another workshop this year. This year’s Humans Rights Day Workshop will be on December 7, 2023. We will have it again on the Thursday before, which is a half day. Since the workshop was very successful last year, this year the club would like to open it up to more people. Ideally, the group wants a diverse audience and new speakers.
Senior Jill Demaio, who was a speaker on the student panel last year, said, “In our school, there is not a designated time to ever talk about human rights explicitly, and having Human Rights Day and having the conference like we did last year allows people to talk about human rights infringements.” She touched on her favorite part and said, “I liked how we brought in people from the community, so we did not just have perspectives from the students, and we brought in people older to talk about their experiences and their work.”
Junior Isabella Johnson, student panel speaker and member of the Social Justice Club, said that Human Rights Day is super important, and “It shows people the diversity of our town and what problems people face on a daily basis and what we could change.” Her favorite part of the day last year was hearing everyone’s story and seeing what happened between everyone. She appreciated the different stories everyone was able to bring to the table. To try to improve for this year, Isabella said we should have “more inclusion and more people. We had to turn down so many people last year, so I hope we can bring in more people who want to hear and help with the conversation.”
Senior Anika Hayes, member of the student panel, believes Human Rights Day is impactful and said, “It gives people the opportunity to share their stories in a safe space.” Her favorite part of the event was being able to hear the adults talk, especially the community members such as Abby Roccapriore. This year she said, “we should allow more people to come and listen.” She stated that last year only certain students and ELL students were able to attend, but this year she believes we should open the workshop to more students who are passionate and interested, and who want to understand and hear other people’s stories.
Senior and student panel member, Noelle Main, touched on her dual citizenship in Germany on the panel last year, a topic that interested many in the room. They enjoyed Human Rights Day last year and believes, “It is important to recognize and understand the other cultures around you. Understanding more and makes you a more well-rounded person.” She also said, “knowledge on the world and understanding others, and honestly, it is just a good experience.” They said their favorite part of the day was “listening to other people’s stories and how their identities shape their experiences.” They said there is not much that needs to be changed except having a better spot to take a group photo instead of in front of the bathrooms.
The Social Justice Club is working diligently to put together Human Rights Day this year and make it even better than last year. More details are to come, but stay tuned!
