Students Become Stewards Of Peace As Part Of Baltimore Ceasefire Project
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Young people at Creative City Charter School are making a difference by taking what they're learning in the classroom and applying it to their work in the community with the Ceasefire Project.
The Baltimore Ceasefire movement promotes peace and non-violence. What you may not know is that now many of the city's youngest residents are becoming members, even active participants.
Throughout the hallways of the northwest Baltimore school, values of friendship, love and problem solving are prominently displayed.
"We start teaching exactly what needs to be done in order to move our city, our state and our world forward," Principal Traci Johnson Mathena said.
The principal said those values are ingrained in their curriculum "from the books that we read to the activities that we do."
As part of Ceasefire Week - a city-wide call for no murders - students at the school are using music, song and art to come together to advocate for peaceful change.
They're working together with their teachers and families - many of whom are trained Ceasefire ambassadors.
Over the weekend, they gathered on a street in Park Heights, just a few blocks from school and where a man was killed on Jan. 10. The group of young people is reclaiming a space disrupted by violence.
"We were out in the circle and we said the school pledge, it made me feel like ceasefire week is loving," said student Pamela Green.
Students of all ages, like fourth-graders Brayden Fenix and Roberto Lugo, say it just goes to show kids can make a difference and be part of the solution.
"If we were all stewards, we would all be nice to each other, and we would all respect each other as they are," Lugo said.
"You learn when you're younger so that you can carry that knowledge with you," Fenix said.
