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Christine Gordillo
Congratulations to Harding sixth-grader Adeline Chalker on winning the top prize for sixth grade in the annual Maltz Museum of Jewish History's Stop the Hate Youth Speak Out essay contest! Adeline earned $400 for her winning piece. Stop the Hate also includes a Youth Sing Out songwriting contest, and Harding's sixth-grade morning class choir earned runner-up with their song "Listen to Our Words". This year, 4,419 students from more than 160 Northeast Ohio schools participated in the Stop the Hate contest and workshops. Click on Read More to read Adeline's winning essay.
STOP THE HATE
By: Adeline Chalker
Our world revolves around hierarchy, prejudice, and inequality. I’m not quite sure how or why it got to be like this, but now we are here in it, just sitting around watching TV shows on Netflix, waiting for it to get better. But quick news flash, that's not going to just happen. So that is why I am going to try to convince our world that we need a change, but not just for us, for transgender people whose rights are revoked and are made fun of. So in this essay, you will see how our world needs to change from rude and unjust to kind and useful.
I first noticed this unfair treatment towards transgender people when my mom’s friend's son transitioned to a female. I still remember how supportive my whole family was that night when my mom told me what it meant when someone was trans, and ever since then, I have heard and seen people do nothing but be rude to trans people and even try to make laws about their freedom. To give substance to this, SB 14 is a law that was passed and signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on June 2, which stopped allowing transgender minors from receiving hormone therapies and puberty blockers. It goes into effect next month.” And these horrible laws have caused trans people to take their own lives because they can’t be who they are. And It took so long for my mom’s friend's daughter to be able to use her correctly gendered bathroom, that is just horrible! Now you see why we need a change, so let's make one.
We need to be kind. Not just to transgendered people but to all of us. You see, if every day we all could say at least three kind things to people, our world would become so much better. But especially to people who transitioned their gender, if we strive to not make fun of them and just act the same, no matter what gender they are, we all would feel welcome in this world. Also if we started to write peaceful petition papers to our government saying anything along the lines of how unfair it is to trans people who are trying to get sex change surgeries and can't because they may be under 18 or how it's illegal to have that surgery where they live, we could start to make a change. Also, if we all do a little research and find out about the restrictions that trans people have, we can further understand their pain and share that with the world to make more people see the change we will and can make. So if we act on this and do what is right, our actions will inspire change. I’ll be a force for good change and not just sit around when people can’t become who they truly are. We only have one world, so let's make it a good one.
- Lakewood City School District
- Lakewood High School
Christine Gordillo
On March 6, Garfield and Harding Middle Schools proudly attended the OMLA Breakfast of Champions, where we recognized four outstanding scholars! Each year, this event honors two students from each member school who exemplify character, scholarship, leadership, and service—and this year, we were thrilled to celebrate Tornado Dee, Liliana Jaissle, Julia Sharpe, and Otto Wilhelmy! Congratulations to these incredible student leaders!
Christine Gordillo
Students in Mr. Spooner's Advanced Social Studies class were privileged to have Mrs. Perlyna Mannix visit their classroom to share her experiences of becoming a U.S. citizen. Students asked great questions based on the tenets of our global awarenes component of our Vision of a Lakewood Ranger. Thanks to Mrs. Mannix for taking the time to share her experience and provide a different perspective on citizenship for our students!
Christine Gordillo
Harding’s Junior Model United Nations Team had a fantastic experience at John Carroll University earlier this month. They began the process of preparing for the conference in October with researching problems facing their respective committees and constructing a position paper with their partners.
Harding’s Junior Model United Nations Team had a fantastic experience at John Carroll University earlier this month.
They began the process of preparing for the conference in October with researching problems facing their respective committees and constructing a position paper with their partners.
The next step was to participate in committees with students from all over the Greater Cleveland area sharing their positions in hopes to come to resolutions; collaborating, communicating, and cooperating throughout the process.
On the second day of the conference the committees were given crisis scenarios that forced them to put aside their work to that point and act on each of the scenarios.
Harding’s teams of delegates rose to the occasion with Andrew Babson and Tyler Kinder taking home a Superior Delegation Award, Audrey Gregory and Laine Taylor taking home an Excellent Delegation Award, and Gia Jirousek and Delaney Mason taking home a Honorable Mention Delegation Award.
The entire team of 16 students showed the conference what it means to embody the Vision of a Lakewood Ranger with their participation in the conference.
Special thanks goes out to the Lakewood Ranger Education Foundation and Principal Chip Plush and Assistant Principal Hadeel Nimeh for making this experience possible.
Christine Gordillo
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