WEST ORANGE, Nj — West Orange High School (WOHS) has just started its new campaign against hatred of any kind around the school.

The new campaign is called “We Are The Answer”. It was first launched through a video posted on the “woschools” social media accounts on Oct. 18. In the 30 second video, members of the WOHS community can be seen giving a brief statement on hate not being tolerated in the school, with the common statement, “Hate is not welcome here,” as the slogan for the campaign.

“It’s kind of us as the administration, us as a team, us as students just putting our foot down and saying, ‘No, we’re not a problem here, we’re the answer,’” stated principal Mr. Moore on the campaign. Moore continued, “We here at West Orange get along everyday and we work together through any difference we may have and we’re accepting of people not by race, but by disability, by sexual orientation, by whoever you are as an individual (sic).”

The inspiration to come up with this campaign came from the lessons that Moore has learned about his students in previous years to now.

“I noticed that students would stand up and advocate for things they believed and I feel on that as a principal I listened and I look at what’s going on with the students, and I’m proud of them,”

After the announcement was made on social media, it gained numerous support and enthusiasm from people across the community. As of print time, the video announcement was shared 220 times and viewed more than 11,900 times on Facebook. On Instagram, it was liked 241 times and viewed about 1,350 times and Twitter retweeted 29 times with 79 likes.

The same amount of appreciation is found in the halls. Similar to social media, multiple students reflected the same enthusiasm for the campaign, along with praising the school for creating the campaign.

When asked what he hopes to accomplish with the new campaign, Mr. Moore expressed his beliefs in setting a tone for where he stands as principal, and stated, “I feel like students only learn and learn best in a comfortable environment where they feel like they can be themselves so I’ll fight for that for my students.”

By doing this, Moore and the WOHS community hopes that this shines a positive light on the school.

“I think that no one should define us but us,” commented Moore, “here at West Orange I feel like we’re putting our foot forward as all these different faces work together and try to accomplish not only just success academically, but success socially.”