Diversity Events

 
 PSCA Conference Workshop:  PSCA Diversity Taskforce: Addressing Diversity In Schools: Forging Relationships … Redefining Roles … Seeking Understanding and Tolerance.

 

            Saturday, May 1, 2004: The PSCA Diversity Taskforce will present a discussion addressing issues of diversity in the schools.  A panel of counselors will offer insight into the challenges faced by school counselors as they facilitate understanding and tolerance.  The discussion will include: multi-cultural and gay / lesbian issues.  Resources will be provided.

 

Looking To The Future: PSCA 2006 Conference … Featured Speaker:  Dr. Stephen Wessler

            Stephen L. Wessler is the Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence at the University of Southern Maine. Mr. Wessler is also a research associate professor of social sciences within the College of Arts and Sciences. CPHV conducts trainings on preventing hate violence and promotes research and teaching on issues relating to bias motivated violence.

            Mr. Wessler, an attorney, developed and directed the civil rights enforcement effort at the Maine Department of the Attorney General from 1992 to 1999. In 1996, Mr. Wessler developed with others the Civil Rights Teams Project, a hate violence prevention program conducted by the Attorney General's office, which is now in over 150 Maine middle and high schools. Mr. Wessler has conducted scores of trainings on preventing hate violence to educators, students, police officers and community members. Mr. Wessler participated in 1998 in the U.S. Department of Justice's Working Group which developed and piloted the National Hate Crimes Training Curriculum. Mr. Wessler is a graduate of Harvard College and Boston University School of Law. He practiced law, both in the Attorney General's office and in private practice, for over 22 years before creating the Center in 1999.

            Mr. Wessler has received recognitions or awards for his work in civil rights from the Maine Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance (1993), the Portland Branch of the NAACP (1994), the Jewish Federation of Southern Maine (1994), the Maine Civil Liberties Union (1996), the Maine Children's Alliance (1997), the Maine Education Association (1997), and GLAD (Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) (1999). Mr. Wessler is the author of The Respectful School: How Educators and Students Can Conquer Hate and Harassment, (ASCD, 2003) and a number of articles, monographs, and reports on hate crimes and the prevention of hate violence.