Sessions 1 & 2 Peer Review
CIVICS NOW
MEET A CHANGEMAKER He Solves Conflicts With Kindness Arguments and violence have met their match in one Chicago high school: a team of students called the Peace Warriors, who help resolve disagreements BY ALEXA KURZIUS
A T THE END of the hallway, two kids are shouting. One shoves the other, and a fight breaks out. Soon, a huge crowd of students gathers to watch—and cheer them on. Suddenly, Rahmier Williams, 18, runs toward the onlookers and pushes his way through. He pulls the two teens apart, getting elbowed in the process. They stand there, still angry, staring at Rahmier, who starts talking to them—about peace. Rahmier is a member of the Peace Warriors, a group of student activists at North Lawndale College Prep in Chicago, Illinois, who are working to change their community. Following principles of nonviolence like those that guided Martin Luther King Jr., they have committed to living peacefully—and teaching others to do the same. As a result
of their work, students at their high school know each other better and have fewer fights. And when conflicts do break out, they tend to get resolved quickly. A City Plagued by Violence Rahmier’s hometown of Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States—and one of the most dangerous. “At Least 58 People Shot in Chicago This Weekend,” one newspaper headline announced recently . Violence has touched Rahmier’s life in countless ways. Three months before he was born, his father was fatally shot on the street. As a kid, Rahmier was bullied at each of the three elementary schools he went to. By the time he started ninth grade in 2014, he was shy and lonely. “I sat by myself at lunch,” he recalls.
4 Sessions 1 & 2
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