By Lisa Carolin
The largest group of respondents to Chelsea’s Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) survey is those who are 19 years of age and under.
That’s out of a total of 690 people who responded to the survey, with people ages 40-59 the second largest group of respondents.
HRC members Susan Morrel-Samuels and David Gilbert shared the results of the surveys from the 19 and under respondents at the HRC’s Nov. 7 meeting.
Morrel-Samuels said, “Students took the survey very seriously. There were many thoughtful comments. They talked about clubs at Chelsea High School like the Diversity Club, Link Crew, (students who help transition the freshman class), the Why You Matter Campaign, as well as signs and flags in the community.”
Morrel-Samuels said the largest category was students who talked about a positive climate at CHS in the sense that students are allowed to speak their minds and that there are leadership opportunities.
There were both positive and negative comments about the change made regarding homecoming (Changing the Homecoming Queen award into the Chelsea Excellence Award).
Some students felt that the City of Chelsea doesn’t do anything to promote human rights, while some felt that there’s no need to promote human rights.
Many respondents said they don’t have a clear understanding of what the Human Rights Commission is and what its job is, and whether it includes everybody or is just for minorities.
HRC members are planning to have a work session to put together the survey results for a presentation to Chelsea City Council, most likely in January.
Two of the members of the HRC have terms expiring Feb. 1, 2019. Anyone interested in joining the HRC can learn more at the website http://city-chelsea.org/boards-committees-commissions.
The next HRC meeting will be on Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers.
