Two New York Schools Participate in preliminary research for Cliques Online

In October 2000, two school visits were made in order to get feedback from teenagers. Questionnaires were distributed among 16 year old high school students at Snyder High School in Jersey City and Hunter College High School in Upper Manhattan, New York City.

From the responses to the questionnaires distributed among high school students, it was clear that the personal accounts and stories carried in the video struck a chord among several teenagers (all respondents watched "Cliques: Behind the Labels" in class before filling out the questionnaire).

Several students indicated that they found the interviews with teenagers of particular interest. They consider the experiences of the characters interesting and relevant to their own life's experiences. While this was true for the majority of respondents, some students, namely whites, noted that the video did not include minority groups.

Regarding the participating schools, while both are city-based, they have different demographics. Snyder High School, in Jersey City, is predominantly African-American. Hunter College High School is located on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Questionnaire respondents were mainly Caucasian and Asian. Notably, Hispanics were not present in either of the school school groups that participated in the questionnaire survey.

During discussions following the questionnaires, some students showed a keen interest in the possibility of exchanging infomation with their peers over the Internet, where they could discuss (anonymously) issues that are important to them. "Cliques" Online provides an asynchronous chatroom for students, where comments can be sent to the Cliques Online moderator, who at his or her discretion, may publish viewers's comments.

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