Speaker event aims to foster understanding and compassion

Classrooms Without Borders speaker event

Seneca Valley, in partnership with Classrooms without Borders (CWB), hosted a thought-provoking and impactful speaker event for high school students on December 7, aimed at fostering understanding and compassion within our diverse community.

Mr. Tony McAleer is an international speaker and instructor with the Safe Communities Institute and an expert on white supremacist extremism. A reformed neo-Nazi who once subscribed to extremist ideologies, Mr. McAleer now works closely with law enforcement and government, from attorneys general to senior staff at the Department of Homeland Security. He is also the author of The Cure For Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion. Mr. McAleer shared a video depicting his story and spoke to students about his powerful personal transformation and the importance of rejecting hate.

Members of the Seneca Valley Social Handprints Overcoming Unjust Treatment (SHOUT) Club attended the morning session along with SHOUT students from South Fayette School District. Following the presentation, the two school groups met to reflect and discuss the consequences of extremism while emphasizing the power of redemption, personal growth and unity. They also discussed ways in which they could help spread compassion and foster a culture of inclusivity. South Fayette is where SHOUT originated. It has now grown to over 20 schools in the Pittsburgh area.

SHOUT provides its student members with the opportunity to celebrate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging while participating in learning experiences and leading schoolwide projects that help foster a welcoming school community for all students and staff members.

CWB is a Pittsburgh-based organization that serves as an excellent supplemental resource for the important lessons we teach about the Holocaust, genocide, hate, cultural differences and more.