Prevention and Culture-building
Hate, bias, and dehumanization rarely appear without warning. They take root in environments where misinformation goes unchecked, identities are marginalized, and students or adults feel disconnected from one another.
What This Section Does
- Build cultures that actively resist dehumanization
- Strengthen adult and student capacity for empathy
- Move beyond reactive responses toward sustained, preventive practice
- Align culture, curriculum, and supports across classrooms and schools
Questions This Section Answers
How do we build the conditions—cultural, instructional, and relational—that reduce harm and strengthen belonging before incidents occur?
What You’ll Find in This Section
- Assessing School and District Culture Tools and protocols to examine climate, policies, and practices that shape belonging, safety, and identity across schools and districts. Includes guidance for aligning prevention efforts with Comprehensive School Safety Plans and required violence prevention protocols.
- Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Resources that help students and adults analyze information responsibly, recognize manipulation and misinformation, and build the critical thinking skills necessary to counter dehumanizing narratives and propaganda.
- Allyship, Affinity Groups, and Shared Community Guidance and activities that build identity awareness, empathy, and cross-group solidarity. Includes resources for supporting affinity spaces, strengthening inclusive culture, and building trust with LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities.
- Curriculum and Standards Alignment Professional learning, lesson supplements, and curriculum tools that integrate genocide education, antisemitism prevention, and anti-bias learning into core instruction across subject areas and grade levels.
- Bullying, Bias, and Hate Prevention Prevention-focused guidance drawn from state civil rights agencies and education departments to strengthen adult conduct expectations, workplace culture, reporting clarity, and schoolwide anti-bullying systems.
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Assessing School and District Culture
Comprehensive School Safety Plans– Violence Prevention (CDE): Use this when reviewing or updating required protocols for preventing and responding to hate-related or violent incidents.
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Media Literacy and Critical Thinking
Media Literacy Resources:The California Department of Education provides a collection of media literacy resources designed to help educators, teacher-librarians, and administrators teach students how to access, analyze, evaluate, and use media and information responsibly and critically. These materials—including curriculum examples, lesson plans, media production tools, and professional development opportunities—are aligned with the California Model School Library Standards and support integrating media literacy and digital citizenship into classroom instruction. The resources aim to build students’ critical thinking skills around media and information in a way that’s relevant to their lives and learning.
Media Literacy for Critical Thinking and Democracy: This Facing History & Ourselves unit introduces students to fundamental concepts and skills related to media literacy. Students learn what mass media is, practice analyzing pieces of media content, explore ways information can be false or manipulative, and consider the connections between media literacy skills and the strength of democracies.
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Allyship, Affinity Groups, and Shared Community
Identity Iceberg & Me: A reflective activity from the ADL that uses the “identity iceberg” model to help students explore and share the visible and invisible aspects of their identities. This resource supports the foundation of positive school culture by building identity awareness and empathy, which are core to preventing dehumanization and bias, and helping students articulate both visible identities (e.g., race, gender) and less visible identities (e.g., beliefs, family culture) — reducing assumptions and strengthening cross-group relationships.
Cultural Identity: Art Expressions: A USC Shoah Foundation art-based activity that invites students to explore and express cultural identity through artistic reflection and multimedia, fostering deeper empathy, self-awareness, and shared understanding across diverse student experiences. It centers students’ identities and stories, building empathy and positive community norms.
Community Matters: Built on a foundation of social and emotional learning, this curriculum provides a year’s worth of activities and materials designed to help faculty build student-centered spaces where honest questioning, discussion, and social and academic growth can occur. This Facing History & Ourselves curriculum can be used in a variety of school spaces, from classrooms to advisory periods.
California Protects the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ People (CRD): Use this when building inclusive environments or responding to harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Resources to Include Immigrant Families (CDE): Use this when building trust, communication, and inclusion with immigrant families before crises occur.
California Protects the Civil Rights of Immigrants (CRD): Use this when building inclusive environments or responding to harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Curriculum & Standards Alignment
Micro-credential – Countering Antisemitism: This micro-credential series supports teachers in building the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills needed to effectively recognize and counter antisemitism in educational settings.
Developed by UNESCO and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation – Institute for Visual History and Education, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and Echoes & Reflections, this program provides high-quality professional learning grounded in research and classroom practice.
Getting To Know Muslim Americans and Their Faith: This curriculum developed by Intercultural Networks Group (ING) was designed to supplement content standards in social studies and world history as it relates to the study of world religions and their contributions to civilization. The curriculum is composed of five individual lesson plans, each of which focuses on a different section of the digital presentation.
The ING “Resources for Educators” page offers a rich collection of free, curriculum-supplementing materials—including lesson plans, multimedia tools, and classroom supports—that help teachers at the K–12 integrate accurate, bias-informed content about Muslims, religion, and interconnected forms of discrimination into their courses.
The “Educational Presentations and Panels for Schools and Community Groups” page explains how ING’s Muslim, Interfaith and Intercultural Speakers Bureaus deliver live or virtual talks and panels tailored to grades 7-12, college classes on topics such as Muslim identity and faith, interfaith understanding, and strategies to counter Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry.
Ethnic Studies Hub: A curated repository created by the California Regional Ethnic Studies Collaborative (Project CRESC) that offers sample curriculum and instructional resources to support teaching about major ethnic groups and interethnic bridge-building, helping educators integrate inclusive perspectives across classrooms and grade levels. A California Educators Together account required.
Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (CDE): The state-adopted Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum provides standards-aligned foundational guidance and exemplars that help educators design ethnic studies learning experiences that promote cultural understanding, equity, civic engagement, and critical reflection on historical and contemporary social issues.
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Bullying, Bias, and Hate-Prevention Infrastructure
Harassment Prevention Guide (CRD): Use this when setting adult behavior expectations, providing staff training, or strengthening workplace culture to prevent harm at work.
Bullying & Hate-Motivated Behavior Prevention (CDE): Use this when schools want to proactively reduce bullying and hate-motivated behavior through climate and prevention strategies.
Bullying Prevention Training & Resources (CDE): Use this when planning staff learning or strengthening schoolwide prevention practices.
Rights of Employees Who Are Transgender or Gender Nonconforming (CRD): Use this when clarifying workplace rights, setting expectations, or responding to discrimination involving gender identity or expression.