GATES Students Spread The Word

By Laurie Borst

Patrice Gans is the Gifted and Talented Educational Services (GATES) teacher at Newtown Middle School. Students in the GATES program learn about human rights issues and the assaults on those rights around the world.

Mrs Gans should be proud. Her students have taken her lessons to heart. Three of her students are now in high school, but what they learned from her has stayed with them.

Kate Bamberg, Bianca Crudo, Amar Agashe, and Mrs Gans met with Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel for an interview last month for his program, Rabbi Rock, seen on the local cable channel.

Bianca and Amar, both freshmen at NHS, wrote editorials on the subject of the Darfur Genocide last year during Mrs Gans’ class. The students read their editorials on the program.

Kate Bamberg, former student of Mrs Gans and now a sophomore at NHS, is the co-president of Global Voice, a club at the high school that focuses on education and outreach on human rights issues. Kate spoke about the group and its activities on the program.

The program will air on Charter Communications Channel 21 on Monday, January 15, at 8 pm, and again on Wednesday, January 14, at 4:30 pm.

“The kids were phenomenal, very poised,” said Mrs Gans. “They felt strongly about what they were discussing with the rabbi. They were very passionate about the cause.”

Mrs Gans has also organized a “Human Rights Forum on Darfur” which will be held at the C.H. Booth Library on Tuesday, February 13, from 7 to 9 pm. Librarians Margaret Brown and Kim Weber helped organize the forum.

Kate Bamberg and representatives of Global Voice will bring their message to the forum.

Tim Salem, Danbury High School assistant principal, will be part of the forum, along with DHS students who worked with him to produce the short documentary, The Promise, about the situation in  Darfur.

The forum has been planned to inform people about the events in Darfur, and, also, to give them a way to take action. People can sign petitions, take flyers to distribute, make donations to organizations working to help Darfur, or find an outlet for their feelings. Children and teens especially need a way to express feelings on the atrocities that are occurring in east Africa.