'Freedom Writers' author appears at Egyptian High School in Tamms

TAMMS, Ill. -- Students in Amy Sitton's English classes at Egyptian High School in Tamms know well the story of Erin Gruwell and her students. They've read her book. They watched Hilary Swank portray her in the movie "Freedom Writers." But they never dreamed she would really visit them -- much less spend three days getting to know them.

At a Jan. 5 assembly inside the gymnasium of Egyptian, Gruwell stood before the schools' sixth- through 12th- grade students. She questioned if the students had themselves been or knew anyone influenced by alcohol, by drugs, been in jail, been abused, lost someone to suicide, been bullied or dropped out of school. If they did, she asked them to stand. Over and over many students rose, and Gruwell looked closer to tears each time.

"My children knew all about those things," Gruwell said. "For my students, that someone was their dad, that someone was their older brother. And it could have been them."

Gruwell, a former English teacher, saw success at bringing 150 low-income, at-risk California students through their high school graduation in the 1990s by encouraging the use of journaling and movie making while reading about teenagers facing hard times during war. She and her students also arranged for guest speakers to visit their school as inspiration, like Miep Gies, an aide to the family of Anne Frank during the Holocaust, and Zlata Filipovi, who wrote "Zlata's Diary" with a diary she kept during the Bosnian War.

Referring to Sitton, Gruwell told the students at Egyptian she "had to come see if she was crazy. I heard she was, and I had to come see it myself," she said, which brought Sitton to tears during the assembly. Sitton was one of the teachers, Gruwell said, who wanted to find a way to get through to students at-risk and put "a message in a bottle," from students that prompted her visit.

Erin Gruwell’s 1999 book, “The Freedom Writers Diary,” was the basis for the 2007 movie “Freedom Writers” starring Hilary Swank. (Fred Lynch)

Later in her classroom, Sitton told how she has shown the movie about Gruwell and her students to her classes ever since its release. She asked the students to write reflections of the movie, and her current supplemental English students suggested trying to bring Gruwell to Tamms because they felt inspired by the story. Students began writing letters to Gruwell, asking her to come and share her story with the school.

Sitton said she worried how well students would behave themselves during an assembly featuring Gruwell, based on past experience with assemblies at the school.

"They were fantastic," she said. "They listened to what she had to say, and this was all so worth it."

Sitton's students wrote comments to share with school staff and community members who gathered later in the night at a reception for Gruwell.

"We wanted to be able to tell you face to face how we are truly inspired by the wonderful things you have done to make your students believers," wrote Adina Green, one of the students.

Erin Gruwell autographs her book, "The Freedom Writers Diary," on Jan. 5 for a student at Egyptian High School at Tamms, Ill. (Fred Lynch)

Gruwell created the Freedom Writers Foundation in 1997, a not-for-profit organization that offers a professional development curriculum know as the "Freedom Writers Method" to train and support teachers of at-risk middle and high school students by providing them with lesson plans that focus on a student-centered learning model based on "internal motivation," according to the organization. Gruwell and other speakers associated with the foundation can be requested by schools and communities for motivational speaking engagements.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

20023 Diswood Road, Tamms, IL