The final Day of the Clearwater High Civil Rights Tour started with a private meeting with the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon. The students were able to ask Asst. Secretary Lhamon about discrimination and civil rights in school education. The students then headed to the White House where they took photos.
At the U.S. Capitol Building, members of Florida Congressman David Jolly’s staff gave the students a tour. Congressman Jolly then met the Clearwater High students in the building’s Rotunda where he answered their questions about congress and the political process. The students were then lead to the House of Representative Chambers where they witnessed a bill that centered around allowing Women Airforce Service Pilots from World War II to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery was debated and actually passed.
Clearwater High students were then led to the steps of the Capitol Building where they took a photo with Florida Congressmen Jolly and Gus Bilirakis.
The Clearwater High Civil Rights Tour is a project-based personalized learning opportunity where 37 select students researched and created an experience that encompasses real-world occurrences that connected them to the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
The culmination of this endeavor included an in-depth tour of historical Civil Rights Movement sites. The students visited Atlanta, Ga., Montgomery and Selma, Al., and concluded the tour in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. The trip was held March 17-22, 2016.
On their return from the tour, the student participants, also known as CHS Freedom Ambassadors, will drive and lead a project based learning experience for the entire student body.
During the trip, Clearwater High students met individuals who were actually key stakeholders, active participants or spectators of these important events. No professional tour guides were utilized, and all learning was authentic and student-driven.
