school was their annual diversity week where during this week you know we try to learn about a lot of different cultures a lot of different races a lot of different people you know very important week for the school happens every year and it consists of a lot of different performances and speeches and and just a lot of interesting advance go around during the whole week with a lot of different guests coming to us speak to the students guys what have you guys thought about diversity week this year diversity two thousand and seven well really involved and took a lot of classes down to see the performance as i myself and then again my english teacher we haven't had class once all week i know our psychology teacher every day went to a new font and i think  good to get the students involved in it and see this for us because that's what it's all about i just feel like it's it only happens once a year and then after it's gone you forget everything you've seen and you just drift on also t sheltie rights as well you know that's a bit like there could have been many issues in addition to should have been mentioned that are very relevant and that would really make it diversity week and not like three issues week i really on this one i really think that  is good for the school it gives some of the people that are stuck in their cliques stuck with their friends you know an idea that people other than them exist in the world and i think i think that's really important but the thing is what you guys think that people just you know think this diversity week as a time to miss class and sleep through an assembly and people really get to take stuff out of it and try to improve the next time that they go to make fun of someone or go criticize a race or you know whatever it is i  more that you know that they g s a and they do throughout the year to promote diversity and this and these things and not just con the thing is the those clubs like the gay straight alliance and diversity tolerance club they really get stuck with labels and i really i really think that the the clubs themselves are good ideas but the people  that you know look at these clubs when you see signs go to the g s a dance go this really have the wrong view of what these clubs actually do you know i think i don't say just needs to change its name yeah i mean maybe but i don't really know i don't really know what i think you have to you know think of a way to really you know impact these kids and not just say ok yeah we're going to have someone from the gay straight alliance speak because that's not going to change whether people think that the gay some point you know you can do all of the you can run all the propaganda you aunt you can you know promote gay rights and diversity all for that but some point thought annoying comfortable in his body i understood that but when he started saying things like we should listen to kids more often because they know who they are my reaction to that was not always and if if for example we start taking everything that kids into say at face value we might end up in  automatically gay and because they're so young they don't understand that there is so much it's so different there's so much more and they will start saying that they are gay and they will be trusted and then they will regret being portrayed in that way because they are not really homosexual i think it was a perfect time maybe middle school high school i think i think by the time i don't know i really think that if people knew who they were knew about themselves a lot more than they  so i think you should do it you know when you bring up these issues in elementary schools and grades i think it's way too owing to another question for you guys is so every year you know we have the cafeteria and balance one it's divided pretty much into two sides you've got one tied side with round tables another side with benches and in the middle you've got a passageway to walk you so during diversity week they take a few of those round tables and switch them up with some of the benches and the objective of this idea by a minute ministration is look we're going to switch up the table so that means that people like to go with their tables and they're going to go sit with new people well like we saw again this year and i'm sure in years past the of time finally it doesn't work people go sit with their friends just at a different table they're not going to they don't they don't mold in in with they don't fall their table round they feel sit at a table of people around of all the people around but i mean i like the idea that now months trying to do with this cafeteria switch up i realize i just think you know i really have really feel it in this high school the high school is very very cliquey it's more clicky than a lot of high schools you got you know each table you have each table so a different group of people sits at different group you've got the drama people you have the african american met go out one table you have the asian people at another table it's all split up my question is why why can't everyone sit together and i think that's a thing that people need to you know begin to look at look why does it matter just like why can we just all hang out so i mean what i think i want it has the right idea but what can now i want you in the future to try to make this idea of mingling people together more make one big mess this is natural people i don't think i think for diversity is worse than no diversity because what force they versity is is going is human nature there is a reason why they move table around and i think like you mention they're committing a huge error in judgment because people fall people and i think whatever you do no matter how much they perceive you force them to people like for example i think building building housing and like inviting people knowing that most represented coming in will be like of another race for example those people in but it's like it's being forced onto the community i mean i think diversity is good but and i agree with what tom says that the issue is not with the cliques but who can be in these cliques i mean if there's a group hangout and i want to go in and you know introduce myself to a group and hang out you're not going to be accepted you're going to be it's like a door that's lost with a few different people and they throw away the key they don't let anyone else in and that's their group you know when people mature you know whether it's in college whether it's after college but you see these cliques tend to you know go away a bit high schools the worst time for these cliques and then afterwards you know they're still there there's always going to be cliques wherever we go but in college and in future endeavors they're not as they're as much in high school why are they still have a nice going what can we do but i think it's it's part of human development you start you start to identify who you are and you identify through that through what group you belong to and on the you know and you did a high school was so if you identify yourself as a musician you hang out with the musician  maybe that's just a natural part of high school and we need to find a less painful way to go through that but is there a way to make it happen earlier whether it happens in middle school in the high school you know you begin to accept that is a way people can teach people things and have it happen earlier or is it just you pop out of the womb being that i know i was i will go with my pessimistic self in my cynical self and i will say no and i don't think we want to because honestly even though it might be unpleasant when i have no other something to many clicks that i but i can say that it has stopped me from doing anything because people people always find their own spot in the world i don't think it's bad but i do think you know it lowers your self esteem to be wanting to join a group hang out with a group of people yes but they don't let you because whether you don't have a six pack you're not on a football team i mean i just feel like especially you know with between guys and girls it's very materialistic in high school between what you look like a material and your personality they don't i mean and if you're not in a certain group then you're not going to be able to go out with that person or even you know have a long conversation with that person and i think really that needs to change it needs to change because people think oh you're different we cannot possibly have anything in common but it's one of the commonality factor the drives cliques or any kind of social grouping because like if you're not on the football team or you have  expecting you must enjoy or look like devote a lot of time to physical exercise if i have the same attributes then we will be like it's assumed in both our minds that we have something in common so therefore will be interested in each other  level of course yeah well the same questions i've asked you and we've discussed in the past ten minutes we asked plenty of people in the bell high school community students faculty people from the lab programs let's take a look right now about what they had to say about diversity week and some of their thoughts guys have been putting a lot of effort in making all the performance go smoothly i think it's been going so far i think it's going great we've had a lot of positive feedback from all different types of people in the audience and it's i think it's going gre and issues in our school so i know the diversity tolerance club was a huge part of putting together this week and it took a lot to put together what went into putting this whole fabulous we together that i was sure is and amelia thoroughbred myself who's not  that all different types of people could join all different groups and meet all different types of people and just get to know each other and not stay in their cliques and not sit at one table or the other just get to know everyone and definitely agree with you so yeah great girls  so hopefully the diversity in the school will continue to grow and you know people continue to meet each other and hang out i mean you thanks lucy nelson the senior here but one has called lucy its diversity week this week how do you think it's going so far i think diversity week has always been a big hit i think everyone enjoys getting the table switched around in the cabin i know i enjoy it because i think the round tables are really fun to sit at and so when i get an opportunity to sit with them at them with my friend times have you seen a lot of performances week yeah you went to the transgender or transsexual i don't transgress i don't really know the difference but i went to that one yeah i went to that one and it was really interesting i saw a guy who was born a girl but always he was the boy and it was it was just a really interesting perspective to get yeah it's very interesting so you've been in almost four years what have you seen improve with a version if anything what do you think still needs to be improved good always in a really good job of diversity just in terms of you know whether it be race or gender or sexuality you know whatever it may be i think that almost always done a really good job of making sure that everyone knows a lot about someone who's not like them is there is there a way to kind of like reduce the amount of clicks that we have in the school because i know there's times oh yeah there are tons of cliques but i think it's just more just more who you fit in with and i think by the time you're in high school you know it's not i mean i don't i never i don't know that many people that have a big issue with the click that they're in because usually you're in the click with your friends and that's really who you want to hang out with and i'm kind of person that can bounce around cliques and you know and i mean i have fun represent you know either it's being homosexual or whether it's being a transvestite or being in the our program whatever they want to show us and they want to show us and it go away i respect that and it takes  of a lot of determination to get where they admire scratch everybody wants a prove a point and everybody should be they do you think that diversity should be you know we need to change like they integrated their round table and the lawn tables over here because like everyone still sits in the same place and like obviously there's going to be like cliques in the school so is there a way to you know get people to mingle mix together without switching the tables i just think that people have how they want to hang out and there's already like to do that like they're trying to force people to hang out for other any improvements you guys would like to see you know after we are out here what's going to happen would you like to see anything improve  as an hour thing seems good but you know hopefully you would like to see diversity as a more present thing in our school so i guaran thanks a lot for your thoughts appreciate it thanks a lot the belmont high has diverse new week and we celebrate all of belmont's wonderful diversity which we have to import from roxbury and arlington because everyone in belmont is either  get rid of the cliques and things that happen every day in high school absolutely not is there a why why should be why should we be diverse one week of the year we should be diverse every week of the year you know i noticed on monday i walked to the cafe and they had moved some of the long tables to the round table side and some of the round tables to the long table side and nothing changed at all people sat in exactly the same places at a different table so i mean i guess the tables can be diverse is there a way for people to you know mix and mingle with other you know people just like and it doesn't matter who you're meeting with you know is there a way for everyone  hang together well there's this wonderful thing called like talking so maybe we should just do some more of that great salt so what would you like to see for the future as you i know you're going to leave by in the fifty days it to be exact for from bob dylan high school but after that you know in the upcoming years what would you like to see from the school and students to improve diversity here i don't honestly think the school can do much of anything i think what needs to happen is there needs to be some more affordable housing in belmont to encourage some actual diversity in the students who live in town great thanks a lot  you so what do you think about diversity we can i think say versity week is a great idea and i feel like you get a lot of different perspectives on different people different cultures  getting people to think about things but i think it's effective so if you like to see any changes to the diversity week schedule in later years i think it's pretty effective and maybe do a few things after school the head teacher here at the lab program lab collaborative classroom in belmont how you doing good thank you so this diversity week here this weekend this is the st time in a few years that the lab program has participated in this wide scale event so how do you think it went and you know what was the goal for participating in that i think it went really well my goal was to sort of present disability as another type of difference as we look at all of the various groups that make up our diverse population here at belmont high and to get what they have the population know a little bit more about who we are hopefully great so what do you what do you think well can you just quickly explain to all of us at there what the lab program really is and you know how you would explain it sure the lab program is a collaborative program lab stands for lexington arlington bedford burlington and belmont of our part of the program is at lexington high and we have satellite programs this one here as well as bedford high as well as some middle school programs in both bedford belmont we service a wide variety of kids with a lot of different kinds of special needs  ranging from students with severe cognitive impairments and physical disabilities to many of our students here at belmont who take mainstream classes and go out and sort of use us as needed for whatever kind of additional support that might be great so you know this whole week is just one week diversity thing and you know people from all of the school attend different performances but in the long run what would you like to see you know improve in regards to diversity and acceptance around my school i think that you know the feedback that i've gotten so far from staff and students were that they found our presentation pretty informative which i think is really good to know i got a little bit more of a sense of who our students were and  we really appreciate you coming on currently speaking and you know hopefully in the future as time rolls on you know you'll be more level become as integrated as a possibly can be with the regular bellman high school ministr well that was just a lot of interesting opinions from a lot of different people like i said it seemed like overall people enjoyed diversity week and they do every year but it also seemed like the things that need to be improved and a lot of different opinions from what you guys think of what people  terrible and that is that they were sort of opinion i mean when we were going around would you like to speak on behalf of diversity week you know people would say sure and then you would get your typical response but we got a few responses that were a little edgy but then the majority of people wouldn't be and you know i think that's because they don't want people in their certain group or people in their click to look down on them because they they made a statement about what they think and i mean i  diversity that's accepted now you know with the whole family of action and minority right type thing i've got i'm going to bring up a quick question for you guys here it's something that always seems to linger  my mind when we talk but they st so you know you have a lot of people that want more rights you know you have the same sex marriage proposals groups you know you have those you know standoffs all the things all the time you probably get a model least once a week all around the country somewhere you know the gay pride stuff and you know i understand exactly where they're coming from that they want as many equal rights as you know and the other person and that should be the latest because i like i don't believe in getting religion into you know politics and things like that but i think that's the way it should be but my question is if you want to be equally accepted as everyone else sometimes when i look at these groups and they were they're doing they're saying i want equal rights and i'm saying but there are standing out exactly what you want is to be treated as a special person like for example this is a very heated issue right now lots of women say that they would like to be treated as equals be equal with men in the workplace but then we have things that are not acceptable to do to to say to women and for which you will get sued and go to jail but you will say but you if you tolerated for example how many male on male sexual harassment who do you see not many i would assume but but for some there are women on women do you do you see i don't know what some things are just not acceptable to to do to some people because of their of their of their gender of their race and so it's not a question of equality is a question of humanity because i mean they say they want a quality but they still want to show that it's a very complicated issue and i don't think three of us are to be able to change what people think but it does bring up a good discussion here you know everyone wants same rights as everyone else like i said that that's a good thing it should happen but but i i know how to what's the best way to go about doing that how how do we do that i mean is are these gay pride groups are the trend us gender groups are all these different groups like good are they going to change people's views what's the way that people are going to change  except different people i think it's going to be there's a lot of emphasis that goes into differences that's what that's what diversity seems to be about and i feel that if we look i differences we won't get anywhere we will see that you know these this is the minority this isn't the majority they've been stepped upon we need to give special education to them to equate that with the rest of society i think we need to move past that and we need to look at each other as human beings before we can that is the most because in order to get things done and this is what this world's about the world is a for example in the business world i know that unlike a capital society even though there is racism in every society there is there is it's like a smart capitalist will not discriminate against for example blacks because she wants a pool of workers who are yourself if you're if you're a homosexual fine but if you're not fine to why can't you an individual focus on themselves individually and not always have to be butting in and say if that's gross no i don't want that why can't you focus individually hang out with the people you want to hang out with and then not have a problem with you know the other people i mean i think if you focus on yourself and not passed a budget that might be the best way to do i educated he would just basically step away from that and say i mean you have my life you'll have your voice i think that was very good and i think that is exactly the sort of attitude we should have but for the fact that there is the again the question is do you want to quality or do you want special treatment do we want to pay a historical debt to for example the blacks in the country for slavery or do we want to sell equality because it's not the same now let's move on to a different aspect that relates to our school lot of schools in massachusetts and our school has programs that bus people in from inner cities we have the met go program we did used to have school choice do you guys believe that these programs are serving their purpose and doing a good thing for minorities well this is only in my eyes this is only and transition state to where we want to be we will you want to be at a point where either parents can choose what school they want to send their kids to or maybe a voucher program or to be at a point where all the schools are in the state are raised up to to  raise up to par and people can be comfortable with sending their kids to their local schools having said that what i haven't heard from mexico is trying to move towards that direction they've they've been growing and they've been growing bussing more and more people to different cities and towns and i think they should really be a focus at what i agree with tom because it's a short term solution and best one of the speakers today the medco medical program the male speaker there were two females all male she said a tremendously important thing and i agree with him one hundred percent i'm ready to sign my signature under every one of his words and i'm being very emphatic because i really agree with him she said the change has to come from within the community he said the problem is not the man sort of speak or se oppressing  people it's change from that today it's the community itself believing that there is something out there which may or may not exist to the extent of the believe in i don't think it exists or that extent that is reported that is oppressive he said the change has to come from inside the community the community must stop worrying and want education i think that is a long term it's an issue but it's an issue that's going to have to be looked at in the long run but for now i think it's good a lot more kids than used to are getting a proper education but i do think in long rhyolite to see as all the inner city schools become up to par with some of the suburban schools and then everyone can have that education no matter where they left but guys one final question for you guys favorite performance during diversity week that's a two part question fa about lesbian woman who was and about her story being of being married to a partner and her petition going door to door petitioning for gay rights and keeping marriage legal in massachusetts and ever joyed the fact that you presented oh a wealth of opinions about this that she got from real people and people that was struggling with the decision she didn't she wasn't very pro or very against and she presented that middle ground what i enjoy because a lot of people are struggling with this decision as for as for next does the spectrum of issues covered my favorite one was the male speaker at the medco because he said some things that are are just imperative for the world to understand for any culture to move anywhere  me i only saw about three different performances but i really like the participation lab program in this day versity week of and i really thought it was meaningful because the lab program is a special ed program that is a collaborative that is separate the high school located inside the high school and you know no one really knows what it's truly about and i think it's really important to explain to the kids go walk through the halls and see lab kids every day who they are what they're all about and you know that they're not some kind of loser for struggling with something that everyone struggles with something that's the point i would like to make everyone this whole week so yeah it's a very complicated issue but i still think every year diversity is improving you know all around the world really important thing i would like to see is kind of get you know maybe next you have a few kids come on stage and express what they've learned from diversity week and say listen before five years ago before i knew any of this i was treating people like this but now you know i have a friend who's gay i have a friend i have a bunch of friends who are african american and so forth so we can actually see improvement throughout our school and it will really pit people home but guys thanks for this gushing day very good discussion thank you everyone for watching this currently speaking for this week but remember that all the views that we have expressed today are are some views soli did only affect anyone else like the belmont belmont cable channel comcast cable network or belmont high school students and