Springfield City School District middle school students are participating in the Do the Write Thing (DtWT) Challenge, a national writing competition that focuses on how violence affects young people.
This is Springfield’s fifth year to participate in the initiative. DtWT is sponsored in Ohio by Attorney General Dave Yost. SCSD was the first and only district to participate in the state during the 2020-2021 school year. DtWT has since grown to include several other school districts in Ohio.
All students in the SCSD’s three middle schools are eligible to participate in the writing challenge, in which they are asked to express how violence has affected them, what their solutions to end violence would be and how they can promote peace in their schools and communities. Students can choose to write an essay, poem, song or any other form that resonates with them.
The essays are then scored in two rounds by groups of community readers and by the competition’s end, a student is selected to attend the National DtWT Conference in Washington, D.C. over the summer. The writings of the Top 10 Finalists will also be placed in the Library of Congress.
Last year, two students from Schaefer Middle School were chosen to attend the conference in D.C.
The initiative launched this year with a kick-off assembly at each school featuring Springfield Police Division Detective Justin Massie, who shared his experience with violent situations and coping with the loss of fellow law enforcement officer, Deputy Matthew Yates. Dr. Martin Johnson, SCSD Coordinator of Psychological and Mental Health Services also shared important resources with students.