Will County Gazette

During its Jan. 17 meeting, the Crete-Monee School District 201-U Board reflected on the district's Martin Luther King Day celebrations.

At the meeting, the board discussed the various celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. within the district. Many of the classrooms discussed the influence King had on the civil rights movement, with students making projects or presentations on what they learned to show their friends and family. Examples of these were posted on the district’s Facebook page. 

Superintendent Dr. Kara Coglianese reflected on the decision to have their first community mentoring youth symposium event in honor of King. The district invited all of their male students from grades 8-12 to have a panel discussion with African American male role models from the community. Approximately 100 students signed up, and approximately the same amount of adults from the community participated. The panelists included police officers from various communities in the area, former gang members who talked about how they fell in with the wrong people, pastors and activists; along with business owners and entrepreneurs.  

"The purpose of this was to again reach out to our males and really start focusing on letting them know there's some alternatives out there—and listening in the sessions, because I went to all the sessions," Coglianese said in the meeting. "Some of our young men were asking some really good questions. They were thinking, and I can tell you by looking at all of them, nobody had a cell phone out. Nobody had any earbuds and nobody had their hoodies on. And they were mesmerized by listening to other men talk. And so it was really an impactful day."

The school was amazed by how well the event went and how engaged the students were with the vendors, asking questions and listening intently. There were numerous vendors and organizations from the community that were impressed with the young students; including the local fire department, which has several Crete-Monee graduates. Other board members shared the excitement they saw in the students being in an environment in which they felt welcomed and heard.

The district is starting to plan the same event for the girls of the school district this spring.