Before a period of “social distancing” ensued on Friday at 6:00 PM, East High went ahead with the capstone of Respect Week at the school, a deliberate effort to narrow, not widen, the social distance between groups of students who might not otherwise mix.

It’s the latest front in the district’s Inclusion Revolution.

“We had a variety of activities going on throughout the week,” said Special Education teacher Nikki King, who coordinated them in collaboration with East’s Community Schools Site Coordinator Antonia Valadez. “Each day this week had a dress-up theme and we had a contest for decorating classroom doors around the notion of Choose to Include. East is the largest high school in the state, which can lead to students dividing into groups. Respect Week is about everyone being part of the same overall group. ”

At lunchtime, students who signed the pledge to be more inclusive were entered in a raffle to win Choose to Include swag bags at the annual Staff/Senior basketball game that marked the end of the festivities before students and staff dismissed for a spring break that will extend through at least March 30.

Pledge signers also wrote out completions to the prompt, “Inclusion is…” for posting on the cafeteria wall.

“Making connections with new people,” read one, which sounds a lot better than keeping social distance in the grand scheme. In that sense, the sooner this particular spring break is over, the better.

March Madness was cancelled this time around, but at East, at least, there was some March Gladness Friday afternoon.