Martin Luther King, Jr. honored in Mineral County schools

Mineral County students honored Martin Luther King, Jr. over the past couple of weeks with projects and reports. Not just to honor his memory, but also to honor the principles for which he was an advocate. January 18 was MLK Day, and Alberton and St. Regis schools took it as a holiday, although Superior held classes.

“It’s a floating holiday, and some years we take it off, and other years we don’t. It just depends on how the holidays fall on the calendar year,” explained Superior Superintendent, Scott Kinney.

“Martin Luther King stood for universal truths,” Kinney went on to say, “he stood for equality, fairness, and race. MLK Day gives us the opportunity, not only to honor him but it also gives us a powerful opportunity to teach students to share his message, and to study what race and equality currently look like in the United States.”

Classes at all grade levels learn about King and his message of peace and equality. They wrote poems, watched videos, and created art work to honor his spirit. For example, Emmah Baughman, an Alberton eighth grader wrote the poem, Freedom as a class project:

Freedom is what he wanted

Rights that every man should have

Equality is what he fought for

End the segregation, was what he wanted

Determined to end the violence, he lead his people

Opportunist, some called him and

Millions listened.

In Mrs. Campbell’s second grade class in Superior, Treydin Spencer explained that “he (MLK) brought black and white people together. Before they were divided”

Hannah Vanderploeg, who was also in Campbell’s class, said that “when black people sat on a bus, if the white people wanted a spot, the black people had to get off the bus.” He (MLK) changed this, “He made peace,” she said.