Wheeler’s 25th Anniversary of MLK Assembly

The Martin Luther King Assembly is very special to Wheeler High school. It is a place where our community comes together to show the diversity and talk about how far we have come but to realize how far we still have to go. Wheeler has been doing this assembly for 25 years, and this is Ms. Worthy’s 9th year organizing it. Hopefully, Wheeler will continue to do it each year around the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He has done so many great things for our country such as to help end segregation. Although today we struggle at time to see everyone as equal and not as lesser than someone else; Martin Luther King was the one who started it all. “I think this MLK assembly made our community stronger by showing us how to make sure we think of others in everything we do,” Olivia Conklin 10th grade. This assembly not only helps bring our community together but it makes people realize what we need to strive for as a community. The color of your skin should not determine how you are treated or observed.

The MLK assembly impacts our community much because not only did Martin Luther King Jr want us to fight for racial equality and desegregation; He wanted us to continue to stand up for other important matters that are happening in our community today. The speech impacted many of the students. Divya Sharma 9th grade said, “ This assembly made us stronger as a community by bringing us together to discuss a leader and visionary such as MLK and gave us all a chance to credit fellow students/faculty for their work towards our school as well as Society. It helped solidify trust in our fellow peers that we could look to them for leadership.” Not only were the students impacted but the teacher were as well. Ms. Worthy said, “excitement of the students in the hall about doing the 50 random acts of kindness and creating a platform for kids to express themselves is great.” The community comes together to think and reflect on where we are now in this assembly.

Throughout the assembly, awards and speeches were given to show how impactful our students are in our community. Student awards were presented to Shawn Doss and Brockton Davis. Shawn works with the special education program at Wheeler through inviting his peers to play basketball. His dedication and work with these people was very inspiring and shows how small or significant acts of kindness are so unique.

In addition, Brockton Davis was presented with an award for his involvement in JROTC. He helped out when Hurricane Harvey and was working with Toys for Tots. It shows that when in our community or even outside of our community there are people with brave hearts who go out of their way to help other people.

Titus Roach, a student at Wheeler, presented a rap he created for the assembly(Titus Roach’s MLK Rap). Caden 11th grade said, “The way he delivered his message was compelling, and it impacted me as well as my peers.” There were other forms of art performed at the MLK assembly: Mr. Barnes sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Ricardo Il Grande played the guitar while performing Bono’s “One,” Nia Rae Allen read a beautiful poem she wrote herself (NiaRae Allen’s MLK Poem), Justin Tanner spoke, Aya Massoud spoke a piece she had written (Aya Massoud’s MLK Speech), and Dwayne Wasson performed a musical presentation. A community award was given to Patty Pace for her work in PTSA, Academic Booster Club, and help on the tennis team. Faculty awards were handed out to Nancy for senior project and campus beautification. Ben Needle received a faculty award for getting a $20k grant for AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination). All the people who won awards, performed, and read speeches impacted our community.

A lot of the students took away a lot from this assembly just as much as I did. Lauren Newhouse 12th said, “I found that the students in the school I’ll have a passion of some sort and are driven to accomplish great things. They inspired me to learn to speak up an express my opinions for a good cause.” Every student took away different things. The ways the students expressed themselves was amazing. Ms. Worthy said,“The way people expressed themselves at this assembly was mighty. She hopes to continue with each new generation to encourage them to be part of a continuous change to be apart of their community to see the next generation in line with kings purpose.” This assembly is a big event for more than just our school, and hopefully, the next generations continue to express themselves and stand up for what they believe.