On Friday April 4, The DLI Civil Rights Team at Monmouth Academy held a Diversity Day. It was a day to celebrate individuality and kindness, as well as discussing issues of hurtful words and discrimination because of race, religion, sexual orientation, skin color, and/or mental illnesses.

We began the activities with Moe Beaulieu, a senior at Monmouth Academy. She spoke to the school about the atmosphere, and how things have changed from four years ago when she first entered this school. Moe had one simple thing to say, the atmosphere has changed, for the worse. Curses and hurtful words are a common dialect among the students at Monmouth, and it is something that should, and needs, to be changed.

Our second speaker was Mr. Tom Harnett, the Assistant Attorney General. He told the school several stories of people being discriminated against because of who they were. We heard a story about how one boy was even pushed to the point where he almost committed suicide because of the way that he was being treated by his fellow classmates. His speech and stories were eye-openers. We as students see and hear these things happening every day, yet we do nothing about it; we continue on with our days.

After Mr. Harnett spoke, the school was split up into four groups: Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. Each group went to a different part of the school to participate in four separate activities.

The Freshman went to the gym, and played “The Celebrate Me Games”. The games were played to celebrate individuality, and how to feel comfortable with who they were, no matter how different it was from the person that they were next to, or even their best friend. It was an opportunity for the group to express who they were, and how they felt about it without being judged for it.

The Sophomores went to the science lab. They participated in “The It’s Not Fair Games.” What was mainly done was the group discussed some things that were not fair, like how people were treated either with words or actions, how they felt about it, and what they could do as individuals, a whole class, or the whole school could do about it.

The Juniors went to the cafeteria and participated in the “Power of Words.” They learned and discussed the power of the derogatory words that are common in our society and the impact that they have on the people that the comments are directed towards.

The Seniors went to the library and participated in “The Anatomy of a Hate Crime.” The class learned about hate crimes in Maine, whether it be online, what somebody says or does towards another person. They also discussed how they felt about those hate crimes and what they could do, or what could be done, to stop them or at the least reduce the amount that was committed.

After the activities had ended, I got the opportunity to talk to a few people about how the day had gone, these were two comments that stuck out to me, and I thought summed up the day pretty well.

Lindsey Smith, a Sophomore at Monmouth Academy said: “I thought that it was a good activity, especially because it made people realize that everyone is different, whether it is race, religion, or even just the way that we think. It also showed that we may think that we know everything about our best friend, but in essence there could be things that we don’t know.”

Moe Beaulieu a Senior at Monmouth Academy said: “I thought that the idea of a diversity day was something that was needed; it was the first year, so it wasn’t perfect, but it put these ideas in people’s heads, and that’s a great thing.”

Many people believe that the Diversity Day was a great thing, and as always some people didn’t, but as a member of the DLI Civil Rights Team, I can only hope that the messages that were sent to the students were received, and thought about.

As a team, we knew that the first year of putting this on wouldn’t be perfect, but next year we are planning something similar to this activity, and we can only hope that it will be just as informative as this year was.