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Press Releases:
Student Awareness Day Changes Attitudes about Hatred, Bullying, Violence
MIAMI (244 words) -- In almost a mantra “it didn’t start with the gas chambers” is what leaders and Holocaust survivors repeated at the Student Awareness Day held April 11 in Miami. More than 100 high school students from Monroe County public and private schools attended the one-day event mid April hosted by the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools as a living memorial through education.
Monroe Youth Challenge Program Volunteer Katrina Wiatt (right) sits with students listening to a Holocaust Survivor at Student Awareness Day. Photo credit: MYCP
After watching a 45-minute video “Children Remember the Holocaust” with Keanu Reeves in the introduction, students also heard Holocaust Survivor Rita Hofrichter tell her story, Channel 10 News Senior Political Reporter Michael Putney talk about prejudice and making choices, as well as a former hate-crime convict Angela King talk about life as a skinhead.
Students sat 10 to a table, each with a survivor of the Holocaust who told their story and answered questions with each student during facilitated discussions.
Coral Shores High School Leadership Teacher Kay McKenzie said, “With this new awareness, my students are now committed to working on projects within their own school and community that will address the issues of oppression, stereotyping, discrimination, and violence.”
The Student Awareness Day experience was made possible by Monroe Youth Challenge Program and a donation toward transportation from the Keys Jewish Community Center.
MYCP is a project of the Monroe County Education Foundation to foster acceptance, respect, and success in the youth of Monroe County. For more information call Sunny Booker 305-797-1328 or go to www.monroe.k12.fl.us/mycp.
