Last Thursday, April 18th, Doug Berglund brought in a speaker to his class; Katie Sample, a community elder and civil rights activist, under the umbrella of South’s s.t.a.r.t. group.  Berglund described the event, “We got passses for kids to come and just have a discussion on racial relations.  We talked about some of the battles she has fought, some of the things she fought for.”

There was some initial difficulty in getting Sample into speak. Berglund said that they, “scheduled for a couple of visits, but the weather interfered.”

The goal of bringing in the speaker was open up a discussion about race relations.  “We wanted it to be a positive experience for the students and non disruptive for the school,” Berglund said.  He complimented the speaker, saying, “What was good about her was that she was real, she experienced it.  And she made sure she included every kid in the room.”

The teacher was also not short of praise for the students who attended, “It was a nice group of kids who wanted to talk about it, it was actually a very positive experience.”

There was one disappointment, Berglund said, “The kids who probably would have benefitted more, they weren’t there.”  But the negatives were easily overwhelmed by the positive things he had to say about the meeting.  “My biggest happiness,” Berglund said, “is that it was a full class, about thirty kids, and everyone of those kids had a positive life experience.”

Katie Sample’s visit will probably not be the last, as Berglund explained, “we’re hopefully going to have her back or another speaker.  We’re trying to get people on this stuff.”