Ryan Medina, an eighth grade student at Wiscasset Middle School, first took notice of bias in his community and then took steps to have it removed, according to Kyle Beeton.
Beeton is a teacher at WMS as well as the school’s Civil Rights Team advisor.
Medina noticed swastikas and “KKK” written on a pump station on Old Bath Road earlier this fall and brought it up during a meeting of the Civil Rights Team, Beeton said.
“We were talking about bias and the mission of the Civil Rights Team,” when Medina brought up the graffiti, Beeton said.
“He mentioned it and we talked about it a little bit,” and decided something needs to be done, Beeton said.
“A conclusion the kids talked about is that it needs to be painted over or somehow gotten rid of, and the next conclusion was that someone needs to contact the town, and since it was Ryan who found it, he was happy to do that,” Beeton said.
Medina “called and they said they would get on it right away, and two days later it was painted over,” Beeton said.
“It’s exactly what the Civil Rights Team is here for; mostly we’re here for the school, but when we see something in the community it’s really important that we do something,” Beeton said. “I’m also really excited in how quickly Wiscasset was able to take care of it.”
Students at WMS learn about the Holocaust in seventh grade and the Civil Rights Movement in eighth grade, Beeton said. “It’s nice that these kids… in eighth grade they already know about these events in human history where bias has led to some awful actions in the United States and also across the world.”
