(CANTON, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost addressed students in Canton City Schools today as the district ushered in another year of “Do the Write Thing,” a national program that asks middle-schoolers to explain how youth violence affects them and to share ideas about how to stop it.
“I am so happy to welcome you back to the ‘Do the Write Thing’ program,” Yost said in a kickoff video shared with the students. “You will continue to blaze a trail for other middle-school students in Ohio.”
The Canton district is in its second year of the program, which Yost’s office launched in the 2020-21 academic year with Springfield City Schools. The Lima and Zanesville school districts also joined the program last year, and new this year is the Youngstown district.
The program encourages seventh- and eighth-graders to put in their own words – maybe for the first time – a personal and sometimes-painful experience. It challenges them to express in a story, poem, song or other written form the violence they’ve seen, with an emphasis on exploring these key questions:
- How does violence affect your daily life?
- What are some of the causes of youth violence in your community?
- What can you as an individual do to reduce violence in your community?
Canton community members and business leaders will read the work of students from Early College Middle School, Crenshaw Middle School and the STEAMM Academy at Hartford, and pick the top submissions. The winning pieces will be published in a booklet and shared statewide to draw greater attention to the problem of violence.
Superintendent Jeffery Talbert said the “Do the Write Thing” campaign is a tremendous opportunity for Canton middle-school students.
“Once again, I am excited to partner with the Attorney General’s Office on this extremely impactful activity,” Talbert said. “Our children have a unique insight into what happens in our community, and it is not only helpful for us to hear their thoughts and experiences of violence in Canton, but they can affect how we, as adults, address those issues. I look forward to reading their essays and learning from them.”
Do the Write Thing, organized by the National Campaign to Stop Youth Violence, was founded in 1994. The program has reached millions of students nationwide.
Attorney General Yost’s remarks to the students can be found
here.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Hannah Hundley: 614-906-9113
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