Erin Gruwell, author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Freedom Writers Diary,” returned to Westmoreland on January 8, building upon her special relationship with our school district.
Gruwell spoke to fifth and sixth grade students from Westmoreland and New York Mills at Westmoreland Upper Elementary School. Her latest message inspired students to be like a superhero, and to use their “superpowers” to spread good in the world. 
“She referenced several superheroes like Ironman, Black Panther and Wonder Woman, and tied them to kindness, empathy and tolerance,” Mr. Polera, Upper Elementary School principal, said. “She then went on to explain how she was able to instill those qualities in her own students and then encourage them to write about their feelings, with the goal of creating common understanding.”
“The Freedom Writers Diary” was published in 1999 and is the basis for the 2007 movie, “Freedom Writers,” starring Hilary Swank. The book and movie tell the story of Gruwell and her 150 at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California during the early 1990s. Her students, originally labeled as “unteachable,” lived in a racially divided community filled with drugs, gang warfare and homicides. The racial division - - and the hostility, indifference and tension that came with it - - spilled into the classroom.
Determined to create a brighter future for her students, Gruwell turned to writing and literature to persuade them to embrace history, humanity and hope. She specifically used literature to compare the turmoil of the time to some of the worst examples of human’s inhumanity towards one another. Her students were particularly inspired by the writings of Anne Frank during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Elie Wiese, a young boy who, along with his father, was imprisoned in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and Zlata Filipovic, a young girl who lived through the horrors of the Bosnian War. The parallels to their own lives emboldened Gruwell’s students to write their own journals, becoming a form of solace. When the students anonymously read each other’s journals, division was replaced with unity and understanding. As a result, the “Freedom Writers” were born.
Last year, Gruwell released the documentary, “Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart,” which depicts what happened before, during and after her students first entered her classroom 25 years ago.
Gruwell’s latest message to fifth and sixth grade students reinforces one of the Upper Elementary School’s main initiatives for the 2019-20 school year. Every month has a different superhero theme that encourages students to act like a superhero instead of a villain.