Hate Crime Reduction and Response in K-12 Schools
In early 2024, the FBI released a special report about hate crimes in schools. It found hate crime offenses at elementary and secondary schools more than doubled from 2018 to 2022. As your school takes a renewed look at prevention tactics, consider the following.
Assess Student Culture
At the K-12 level, most schools are already working hard to build healthy community relationships among students. This important work has many benefits and should continue. As institutions work to deepen their community’s sense of inclusion and belonging, focus on building a positive school culture that curbs negative behaviors, such as bullying, and helps students build relational bonds.
To assess the current state of your institution’s culture, with a lens toward preventing hate crime offenses, consider taking the following actions:
- Establish buy-in from the top. Encourage school leadership — including boards, superintendents, heads of school, and principals — to incorporate hate prevention into their work.
- Implement a violence prevention curriculum.
- Join a program like No Place for Hate®, a K-12 school framework focused on student belonging.
- Incorporate age-appropriate hate prevention lesson plans into various aspects of your curriculum.
- Publicize your student conduct code, which should outline your expectations for student behavior and school culture, while referencing all applicable policies, including anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, and others.
- Require all students agree to an acceptable use policy for electronics and internet at school. Remind students that conduct rules apply equally to online behavior and that your school has the right to monitor the use of its equipment and servers.
- Train teachers and educate parents about how they can best connect with students and prevent hate. Educate teachers, parents, and adult community members about youth radicalization risk factors, warning signs, and prevention steps.
Public schools must remember to respect students’ First Amendment free speech rights in all responsive actions taken. Consult legal counsel for advice for hate incidents that may implicate free speech rights.
Improve Response Procedures
Effective awareness and early intervention are key to preventing hate crime incidents before they occur or stopping them from escalating once begun. To help respond with quick and decisive action, ensure you have:
- Strong policies. Schools can prohibit negative behavior through policies they enact, which can address topics such as cyberbullying, harassment, and anti-bias. Work with legal counsel to ensure your policies include all protected categories, such as race, sex, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and others covered by your state or local laws.
- Disciplinary guidelines. Consequences are critical to changing negative behavior. Create written guidelines that set forth the range of interventions and consequences, as well as guidance for when they will be applied.
- Clear expectations for educators. Make your staff and teachers aware of what actions are expected by them. Train them on awareness, behavioral red flags, intervention options, and reporting.
- Reporting options. Educate students, parents, and teachers on bias and hate incident reporting so all situations are processed through the correct channels and can be addressed promptly.
- Resources for involved students. Prepare the resources and supportive measures that will be offered in various situations. Consider the needs of victims and perpetrators — making sure counseling, behavioral interventions, and protective measures are available. Tailor resources to the age of the youth involved.
Hold People Accountable
Adults in students’ lives have tremendous influence, especially those who can offer help.
Teachers and administrators should integrate your school’s message of hate prevention into daily work. Because tone setting begins at the top, it’s also crucial for your school’s administrative leaders to focus on hate prevention in all decisions and actions. Consider enacting a policy requiring leaders to engage in this work and hold them accountable for following through.
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Additional Resources
About the Author
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Christine McHugh, Esq., ARM
Associate Vice President of Risk Management
Christine is responsible for providing day-to-day management of the Risk Management department’s functional operations and works cross-functionally to advance the department’s ability to meet UE goals, objectives, and provide sound thought leadership to the educational community. Before being promoted to the role in June 2024, Christine was a Senior Risk Management Counsel. Her areas of expertise were employment law, sexual assault prevention, protection of minors, traumatic brain injury, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to joining the Risk Research team, she handled UE liability claims for several years. She previously practiced employment and higher education law.