“When hate ends…. Respect and love begins….”

With the start of the new academic year for CVMS; there was a list of many exciting clubs presented to students for them to take part in. One club from the list that needs a mention is the “no place for hate club” lead by Mrs. Melinda Schermerhorn who also holds the post of the 8th grade science teacher. This club has successfully started since September 6th 2023 every Wednesday morning in room 410.

“Canyon Vista has always been a no place for hate designated campus but they lost this distinction for the last few years because you have to create a club and do some school wide activities and they didn’t have a sponsor. So, that was something Ms. Hagerty and I talked about on bringing it back so that’s why I started this club,” said Mrs. Schermerhorn. 

Mrs. Schermerhorn  informed that the no place for hate alliance was a program that was organized in the state of Texas by a league called the anti-defamation league. They are a group, present in all schools from Elementary all the way to high school who help fight racism, anti-semitism and other such society born stereotypes. The main goal for this group is that all the kids from their schools learn to appreciate and accept others with different lifestyles and personalities as them. 

“I really enjoy the club. I really like to help in making people aware of bullying and it makes me really happy that there is a club for it.” said Percy Hubbard, a seventh grade member.

 “The club has helped me, cause, I don’t really get to talk about most of the things that I want to talk about to other people so, going into her room and like talking about it every morning is really cool.” said Ruby Barnett who was another 7th grader that attends the club since the third week it started. 

Round Rock organizes a lot of district wide movement’s every year and aims to develop a sense of belonging in most of them. This club,has the same motive. The No place for hate club wants to create a safe environment where everyone can learn, make friends, have fun and participate in activities as an equal despite their race, nationality, gender and other such differences. They hope to create a place with no hate wherein every student feels like they’re important and needed.  

The upcoming things that the club will be working on is kindness week, that’s coming up on the week of November 13th. The club is planning to do so by organizing some activities in advisory related to kindness and hopes to bring in a sense of understanding among students.

“My favorite part about this club is that everybody listens to everybody’s idea’s and they take it into consideration and they don’t just brush it off,” said Barnett.