‘Freedom Writers’ educator returns to Mat-Su

WASILLA — His words pulled back the skin, the tissue, the muscle, the bone and laid bare the hole in his heart.

It’s been two months, he said.

“I never thought Jeremiah could do this to me — to us,” Noah Conn said.

Conn shared his story with a crowd of about 200 teachers and other community leaders gathered to listen to renowned educator Erin Gruwell speak Wednesday night.

It was the book Gruwell helped her students in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson high school in Long Beach, California write what eventually became the Freedom Writers book and the 2007 movie by the same name starring Hillary Swank. But it was Conn’s story about the greatest challenge in his life that drew a standing ovation from the audience. He is a sophomore at Wasilla High School and was in Jason Marvel and Deb Haynes class with his best friend Jeremiah Parret who took his own life Oct. 16, 2014.

“This was written because there isn’t any room left in my head,” Conn said Wednesday. “There isn’t any way of changing this. There isn’t anyway for him to come back.

“It’s almost been two months since I lost my best friend Jeremiah.”

Conn was the third of three Wasilla High School students to share their stories at the microphone Dec. 3 at Evangelo’s Restaurant in Wasilla. Also speaking were Everest Pearce and Malia Rains.

“The day he killed himself he looked so happy. Well, I thought he was,” Conn said. “He picked me up and hugged me and said ‘goodbye Noah Conn.’ I just smiled and said ‘I will see you tomorrow,’ not knowing what was going to happen.”

He said he’s not sure how to keep going. But there is something inside him that says “keep going. Keep moving forward.”

Conn thanked Marvel and Haynes for their support. “They have helped me so much. I’d like to make them a promise.”

“I promise not to intentionally hurt myself in any way,” Conn said.

The room erupted into applause, cheers, whistles and a standing ovation.

Then it was Gruwell’s turn to command the room.

“I came in the room as a teacher and I feel like a student,” she said, turning to address her remarks to the table where the three students sat. “Today you were a voice for every kid in the Valley who could not stand before us. Voices standing before us saying ‘I have something to say. I matter.’”

Kids are kids, Gruwell said. In some ways, kids in the Valley face different life challenges than those in her storied Los Angeles classroom. But kids also face lots of struggles — like homelessness, violence, hunger and poverty — that are universal.

She said the thinking was that her students were expected to get pregnant, drop out, die or go to prison before they were 18.

“The script had already been written for these kids,” Gruwell said.

‘I see it as a gift’

Wasilla High’s Everest Pearce knows he can write his own script. And he has a role in mind for himself. He will build himself into a therapist and teacher who will help other kids through rough times, he told the crowd Wednesday.

“Others may see it as a job,” he said. “I see it as a gift.”

Pearce expressed gratitude to his teachers Haynes and Marvel for inspiring him to try harder.

“I know what it’s like to think,” he said. “To think you are alone.”

Pearce spoke first and when he finished, Gruwell alone stood and clapped.

Student Malia Rains reminded the mostly adults in the room that kids’ lives aren’t as simple as people think. She said sometimes, too, adults mistake what really matters to kids.

“My parents could buy me everything and I could still have nothing,” she said.

Caring adults who treat kids with respect are the key, Rains said.

“If you are so worried about our generation is going to turnout — help us, listen to us,” she implored.

Gruwell credits her students in Room 203 with teaching her the power of telling your personal story. She played a clip from the movie that shows her working through an exercise with her students that asked them all to come to a line in the middle of the class if they knew someone who was in jail or had been in jail, if they knew someone who was in a gang, who died due to gang violence, and if they were poor.

She said everyone stood on the line when she asked who among them was poor.

“All of them knew what it is like to be hungry,” Gruwell said.

During an assembly at Colony Middle School Wednesday she asked a similar series of question to Valley students. Students from Wasilla, Colony and Burchell also attended the assembly.

Mat-Su Borough students stood when Gruwell asked if anyone knows someone who has been homeless, bullied, contemplated suicide, been depressed.

“I saw hundreds of kids in your community stand,” Gruwell said.

She said the exercise shows kids they are not alone in their struggles. And Gruwell said knowing someone’s story helps break down stereotypes.

‘Our story is your story’

It was the words of a courageous little girl in a tiny attic who picked up a pen and told her story that inspired Gruwell’s class to the stars.

When her students balked at the book report assignment the idea was born to write to the 87-year-old German librarian who snuck paper and pens to Anne Frank during World War II.

“I want to believe — maybe I need to believe — that when she sat down to read those letters, she saw in my kids what she saw in Anne,” Gruwell said. “Because these kids are her kids.”

What if they couldn’t raise the money to bring her to California? What if she declined all 150 of their personal invitations? Gruwell said she tried to temper their expectations.

If they didn’t raise enough money, they could buy more books for the classroom. Or, maybe take a field trip.

“But if she does come, your lives will never be the same,” Gruwell told her class.

In the end, Miep Gies traveled from Amsterdam to Los Angeles during the 1994-95 school year.

“She came to honor their words,” Gruwell said. “Because a kid is a kid is a kid.”

Gruwell said Room 203 is a mirror she holds up as a tool for revealing our own story.

“Our story is your story,” she said.

This is Gruwell’s second trip to work with students and teachers in Mat-Su Borough School District schools. Colony Middle brought her up in 2009 for the first time. That visit launched the Knight Writers writing and publication project at her school, said Principal Mary McMahon. Students are currently working on the third volume in the series, she said.

Gruwell singled out Volume 2 where Jeremiah shared the story of his early life and struggles.

“A young boy picked up a pen and talked about his dad, about his mom, about being invisible, about being in foster homes,” she said. “Every single person can read Jeremiah’s story because he put his words in Volume 2.”

Ultimately, the point of the Freedom Writers book — and the associated teaching project that trains other teachers to use the same methods — is an exercise in listening.

“We are here tonight to honor the voices of kids,” Gruwell said.

McMahon said her students are struggling beneath the weight of their own stories.

“We have girls who lost their mom to murder last year,” she said. “The trial is underway now.

“These kids need our entire community.”

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.