On October 10, 2021, Westhampton Beach Students walked in their gym class against hate. The campaign “No Place for Hate school” looks to stop racism in our schools.

According to assistant principal Mrs. Pillittier, who organized the walk in our district, “The purpose of this walk was to start the conversation with students across all grade levels and have them self reflect on the topics of racism and bullying.” 

Students walked during physical education classes so all students could participate in this school wide event.  Pillittier  said, “We counted the number of steps we walked collectively as a school, which was over 1 million to show our support in moving towards a more inclusive school.”

Our school became involved after applying to be a No Place for Hate School.  Pillittier explained, “This is to create a school and community environment that is more inclusive and raises awareness on bullying and bias.  We are working on cultivating student leadership through our building based equity committee.”

While walking around the track field students were able to record their steps and go to the official website and put how many steps they had taken.  Signs were made by Youth2Youth that some students held while walking. 

In order to be a No Place for Hate School we must participate in three school wide events and The Walk Against Hate was our first event.

As Mrs. Pillittier said, “Hopefully this is just the starting point in raising awareness about these topics and helping all of us have difficult conversations.”