Several Kennedy Middle School students participated in writing a book, making all of them published authors.
Each student in Lanel Williams’ class wrote one page in “School Life With COVID-19” and made a drawing to go alongside the words. The book focused on the educational experiences of the eight students, who all have special needs, during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Williams was excited for the students to see the result of their work and praised them for working so hard during the hybrid school situation that they experienced.
“Today is a huge day for us,” Williams said. “It’s a celebration of the students’ accomplishments. They have sat down” and “worked on writing a book. This is a huge deal because just to reach a level of success for some students to write a sentence, to write words, to learn their letters, is a challenge.”
During the celebration, a few students read their page from the book.
Jayden Rouse wrote about how he has to sanitize multiple times a day as well as wear a mask for eight hours and socially distance in the hallways and classroom.
Each student was presented with their own copy of the book as well as a certificate for being a published author.
Dr. Ryan Ashley, Kennedy Middle’s principal, said he was proud of every student who participated.
“I know they all had a piece in this, so I think that’s awesome and it’s good to celebrate,” Ashley said.
King Laurence, superintendent for the Aiken County Public School District, was on hand for the festivities. Laurence said he’s always happy to visit classrooms, which he hasn’t been able to do as much during the pandemic.
View the full Aiken Standard article here.