Staff and students at Edward R. Murrow HS, one of the most diverse high schools in New York State, took part in a great human wave to celebrate that diversity on Oct. 24. Unsettled by the news in the outside world over the summer, Theresa Ann Crivelli, a physical education teacher and the UFT delegate, said the idea came to her as she returned to school feeling that “we need to celebrate who we are in this building.” With her principal’s support, she spearheaded the wave event. A student stage crew built a boat that Crivelli mounted on a dolly and wheeled around the building to recruit participants. To show they were “on board,” registrants dropped a ping-pong ball with their ticket number down a gadget designed by the student robotics team. In the weeks leading up to the event, Crivelli picked balls from the boat, read the numbers over the school intercom and gave PTA-sponsored prizes to the winners. With the regular school day beginning at 8:20 a.m. on Tuesdays at Murrow, those joining the wave showed up at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 24. Beginning with the distribution of T-shirts and wristbands with a student-designed wave logo, it was all hands on deck. Some 1,200 students, faculty and support staff fanned out to circle the building and then did a synchronized stadium-style wave as music students performed “We Are the World” and Bob Marley’s “One Love” in and around the building. “It was something to bring us together, to bond us even more as a community,” said Crivelli. “And it was a lot of fun.” Nobody was left untouched. “Today our students stood next to someone they might not normally interact with, so hopefully today we sparked a conversation,” said Murrow Chapter Leader Charlene Tuff.