S.T.O.P. Teacher Information Packet

S.T.O.P. is an educational and public awareness effort that addresses the issue of modern day slavery. Your unit on slavery and any subsequent student activism should be focused around the goals of education and building public awareness. You and your students should work to educate yourselves, your school, and your community.

Jump to...

• Background Information
• Clearing your program with the school administration
• Introducing the S.T.O.P. campaign
• Letter-writing
• Taking the campaign to the next level
• Sample letters

Background Information

In addition to the documentation on this website and information from the American Anti-Slavery Group (1-800-884-0719), you may contact the following groups for further information.

• Barbara Vogel can be reached at Highline Community School by phone at 303-364-7657 and by mail at 11000 E. Exposition, Aurora, Colorado, 80012. You can e-mail Barbara at vogel@iabolish.com. Her class is available to support your efforts. S.T.O.P. classes from around the country have adopted Barbara's students as pen-pals.
• Teachers with questions about modern day slavery should feel free to call the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) toll free at 1-800-884-0719 or e-mail info@iabolish.com. The organization's address is 198 Tremont Street, #421, Boston, MA, 02116. AASG is a registered 501c3 non-profit.

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Clearing Your Program with the School Administration

• Discuss the program with your principal, school board, or parent councils.
• Be clear that you are taking no political or religious stand. This is a human rights issue, as slavery is a direct violation against the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. This program combines history and current events, education and activism.

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Introducing the S.T.O.P. Campaign

• Use our free curriculum. Ten lessons on modern day slavery are available at no charge.
• Teachers often find that the best way to introduce the S.T.O.P. campaign is to segue from a unit on slavery in America to a discussion of the persistence of slavery around the world today. Students, who are generally shocked to discover that slavery is not history, will want to learn more and take action.
• You can draw upon the extensive documentation in the Slavery Today section to help with your initial presentation. You will want to discuss slavery, as well as what American students are doing in response.
• Assign research projects on modern day slavery (and the response by American students). Help your students assemble a mural on modern day slavery, to be displayed at school so all students can learn more about the topic. Include stories of freed and escaped slaves, as well as information on how students can act.

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Letter-Writing

Help your students write letters about contemporary slavery to national leaders.

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Taking the Campaign to the Next Level

A larger goal of the S.T.O.P. Campaign is to enable your students to educate their local community. Because building public awareness is the ultimate goal of any abolitionist campaign, attracting significant media attention to your class' efforts is a great way to cap off the unit on slavery. There are several ways you can go about doing this.

• Hold a special ceremony at your school to recognize your class' efforts. One school in Miami put on a performance featuring 'appearances' by famous American abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and William Lloyd Garrison, as well as poetry readings and other oratory. The school commissioners have asked that the school help implement this program throughout their school district.
• Organize a "Freedom Walk" or protest in a prominent area in your community. Your class can design and create signs and banners, plan the best location and time for the event, and create informational fliers for onlookers and the media.
• Contact S.T.O.P. and the American Anti-Slavery Group for information on getting a speaker to address your school. Escaped slaves - whose message is that education and knowledge are the true paths to freedom - have been wowing school groups across the country.
• If you do launch a campaign, get the school newspaper and/or local media to cover your work. TV and radio stations, as well as newspapers are typically delighted at this interesting education/human interest story. The press coverage is an opportunity for your students to learn more about journalism and media while bringing their message to their entire community.
• Consider a fundraising drive towards purchasing the freedom of slaves in Sudan. The enclosed materials address questions and concerns about the redemption campaign. The money students raise goes directly towards the emancipation of children their own age in Sudan. Some classes have raised money by collecting spare change, selling tacos, auctioning artwork, or holding benefit dances. Any funds raised for redemption can be sent to the American Anti-Slavery Group, 198 Tremont St., #421, Boston, MA 02116 - write "Slave rescue" on the memo portion of the check.

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Sample Letters

Dear Congressman Payne,

My name is Thomas Turner and I'm an adolescent abolitionist who would love to eradicate slavery even if I have to throw my life on the line. I'm writing you because my fourth grade teacher read an article (to the fifth grade class who started this) from the Rocky Mountain News called "Slave Trading Thrives in Sudan."

Since you took the time to sign our petition first, you are making a difference to others. The quote "only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." Said by Albert Einstein which we take pride in. If you are wondering about me, just being a kid, might mean I can't make a difference well here's another quote "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." Said by Aesop. Thanks again you are making a difference.

Love,

Thomas Turner

Good luck! Contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.

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