But the most troubling aspect of civil rights violations - whether they're against blacks, Jews, homosexuals or Asians - is that the average age of the offenders is dropping, according to the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence. That's why the educational task force, located on the University of Southern Maine campus, is taking its message to sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students throughout Maine, including Greenville Middle School last week.

Presenters Lee DeAndrade and Peggy Moss conducted workshops for two days at the Columbia-Doric Masonic Lodge, where they showed some sobering statistics on civil rights violations and related several troubling stories, including some from their own past.

"Even what you may consider a harmless remark or inside joke is actually very hurtful," said Moss. "Where do you draw the line? We all have the right to go about our daily business without fear."

According to the Maine Attorney General's office, 34.5 percent of the civil rights complaints come from African-Americans or Africans, 33 percent come from gays and lesbians, 7.5 percent from Jews and the remainder from an assortment of ethnic nationalities.

Asians have been more frequently targeted, said Moss, especially the growing Cambodian community in Portland. And more Africans have been in the spotlight because of the large number of Somalis relocating to Lewiston.

But even black families who've lived in Maine all their lives aren't immune from bias. Moss showed a cartoon of a Ku Klux Klansman holding a noose with the words "We're back!" under the artwork. "This was nailed to an African-American man's home in central Maine," said Moss. "How do you think he felt when he saw it? Would you feel safe?"

Often, those who commit civil rights offenses don't limit their hatred to one group, Moss pointed out. A note, signed by the American Liberation Movement, was sent to a Jewish family, warning them to get out of Maine "before we blow you up strait (sic) to hell."

But it wasn¹t long after that note was reported to authorities that a gay rights organization in Portland was also warned by letter that homosexuals should leave the state "before we blow you up strait to hell." The organization - which Moss suspects may be one person - and misspelling was identical to the note sent to the Jewish family.

A few eyebrows were raised when Moss reminded the students that the first daylight Ku Klux Klan parade "was held in Milo, Maine, not in the South. And do you know who their targets were? French-speaking Catholics."

DeAndrade is of Cape Verdian heritage and once lived in a small town in the Midwest. While out jogging in her neighborhood one morning, she passed a corner where a young man yelled a racial slur "so loud I could hear it with my earphones on." DeAndrade said that the shock "changed my life. For the first time in my life, I was scared to go out in my own community."

She asked the class to give her some common "put-downs" and racial or ethnic slurs they've heard in their own community and it didn't take long tofill up two lists on the easel. "I'm only asking you to think about the impact of these words. It can stop people in their tracks." The best way to combat inappropriate behavior, said Moss, is through peer pressure.

"Someone has to stand up in a crowd when a joke is told or a remark made and say? "Hey, that's not cool." Be a leader. You don't want your school to have a bad reputation," said Moss.

"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Moosehead Messenger and is used here with permission."