Share all compelling #USvsHate messages locally to shape school climate. This is a crucial part of #USvsHate.
Students and teachers are sharing messages locally on school walls, bulletin boards, websites, and T-shirts, via gallery walks, and in assemblies to highlight live speeches or presentations. Document your sharing on social media, using the #USvsHate hashtag! This helps grow the “us” working against hate, bias, and injustice.
For a reminder of what we consider an “anti-hate” message, see our guide.
Submit your best to our national challenge via this form. ***In 2023-2024, you can also submit entries responding to our Special Call, where we invite students to weigh in on the inclusive teaching they want in schools. Use the same submission form, with the same challenge deadlines.
Teachers can submit 3 entries max per class, to each challenge! Youth can also submit directly on their own.
Our 2023-2024 #USvsHate challenge deadlines are December 1, 2023 and April 5, 2024.
As you prepare to submit, remember:
- Educators: consider inviting students to help you select entries. One teacher set up a gallery walk allowing students to see and vote on one another’s work.
- We amplify messages with first name, grade, and state only, or anonymously with grade and state. Help us out: please do not submit an entry that contains any student’s full name or school name. (e.g., as student introduces a video). If we cannot edit such information out, we will share the entry as is –or not use the entry.
- PLAN AHEAD: For students under 18, parent/guardian permission is required for any entry submitted with a student’s first name on it. You will vouch that you have this permission when you upload your students’ entries. You do not need to upload any permission form. If permissions are unclear, we will share anonymously. Here’s a permission slip educators can use to get that parent permission, as needed. See Kim’s story in #USvsHate Teacher Stories for how one educator handled permissions via email. Get permissions however works for you.
- You can also ask parents to sign our “docusign” version of this same permission slip (link forthcoming). Note that this will keep parent permissions in our records, but not in yours.
- (Students under 18 who submit for themselves must prepare to get parent/guardian docusign permission to share with a first name if they win.)
- The submission form will also invite students and teachers to explain the work and intentions behind messages in a “backstory,” either written or recorded. Plan ahead! We might publish backstories or portions of backstories online or in other #USvsHate products, like compilation videos or reports.
- Any message or backstory submitted must be ready to share publicly as is. We may publish it on usvshate.org/social media, or use a portion for a compilation video or other public #USvsHate product. (When submitting, you are giving #USvsHate permission to use your submitted material in #USvsHate public materials like our posters/stickers, compilation videos, social media, reports, blog posts, etc., and to shorten/copyedit backstories for public sharing. You are also giving #USvsHate permission to let #USvsHate partner organizations reshare #USvsHate’s material to further amplify and celebrate the work.)
To be considered for a “Winning” #USvsHate message, the message also must do the following:
- Include the hashtag #USvsHate. (If you don’t put it on there, we’ll add it for you.) If you are submitting a message responding to our Special Call, add the additional hashtag #LetUsLearn.
- Be both creative and original. (Use original words and other material. Don’t plagiarize. A design could make a common slogan original, but our preference is new words and ideas. Do not use clips from music, videos, or other media that is copyrighted by others. If you use others’ publicly available material, credit the creator whenever possible.)
- Successfully communicate the #USvsHate message of inclusion and justice for all, to a group of peers.
No message submitted should be harmful or hateful to others.
How to upload using our form:
- Those submitting images can a) scan a paper submission or b) create the image digitally. You can submit messages like Op Eds, poems, or letters to the editor in Word. Upload documentation of art installations or performances. If you want to submit a paper submission and don’t have access to a scanner, you can upload a photograph of a piece of paper.
- If you win, we may ask you to mail us the original for reproduction.
- Again, any message submitted must be ready to share publicly as is.
Winning entries will be amplified nationally via our website and social media. A subset will be made into free posters and stickers for participating classrooms. Check out our latest winning messages!
Finally, take the most important next step: ask students and colleagues what they want to learn and do NEXT in your school community. Is there a next topic on the website that people want to explore? Could a favorite #USvsHate activity be taught every year? Who could join #USvsHate in a next round? Go for it! Return to our Getting Started tab for questions to ask students and adults, to figure out what’s next.
Questions? Contact micapollock@ucsd.edu.