Around the back of Spectrum Community School is lodged a small white teepee, its 17 poles hewn from Douglas fir trees representing a rainbow of spectral colors. It’s a physical symbol of respect and pride to the over 110 students and staff, a daily reminder of diversity and peace.

On Nov. 3, the Spectrum community gathered to dedicate the teepee as a sacred, reflective and safe place to mediate disputes or share stories.

“It’s there as a symbol for the school – you don’t have to go down there to resolve something,” teacher Phil Davis told students. “It’s an active presence, a reminder that it takes constant vigilance to keep a sense of community in school” and “a climate of respect.”

Bringing the teepee to light is especially important for new students, he said, who may not know that the mission of the school centers around non-violence. It’s the third year Spectrum has held the teepee dedication ceremony, and serves as another way staff and students can reflect on human rights.

Spectrum is a non-traditional school for grades 10-12 within the North Kitsap School District.

The dedication ceremony opened with an African song by the Spectrum Drummers, Principal Chris Wendelyn’s project from the heart to not only teach interested students about the world traditions of drumming but also instill a sense of pride and identity.

After Davis told the story of the teepee, Chenoa Egawa and Alejandro Mitchell blessed it with Native American songs accompanied by a hand-held drum, holding students enraptured in the sincerity, story and spiritual clarity.

One of the songs sung in Native language, Chenoa said, told about the way an eagle flies in a circle, going higher and higher in the sky until it’s out of sight. The eagle, she said, takes wishes with it to the spirit world, higher than man can go, and when it returns, the thoughts will come back in a good way to the person that sent them out.

Following the singing and drumming, Steve Old Coyote, who helped dedicate the first teepee about eight years ago, spoke to students.

“Don’t let the adults take it away from you – you own it, it’s yours,” he said. “Trust people and let them have ownership of it, too.

“We build our teepee everyday – our spirit is not just the physical teepee.”

The idea of the school teepee came after some trees in the nearby woods were knocked over and stacked to create a teepee, Davis told students.

“There’s something cool about having your own little space that’s out there in the woods,” he explained. “The school teepee became our own little club – and everybody’s a part of it.”

It also ties into the school’s group, the Human Rights Exchange, and Declaration of Human Rights approved in 1992, Davis said. The Human Rights Exchange works to promote human rights in the school, community and world, sponsoring an annual trip to Mexico to travel “not as tourists but going to break down barriers.” The group also organized a youth rally for human rights last spring at Kiana Lodge, inviting high school and junior high students throughout the county.

A banner in the Spectrum classroom where the teepee dedication ceremony took place reads, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” It serves as a reminder to students and staff to persevere through life’s challenges, not only in school, but also in the personal experiences that brought them to Spectrum.

“The very core of Spectrum,” said Davis, “is a fountain of nurturement for your soul.”