The initiative launched this year with a kick-off assembly at each school featuring Springfield Police Division Detective Justin Massie, who shared his experience with violent situations and coping with the loss of fellow law enforcement officer, Deputy Matthew Yates, and Martin Johnson, Springfield schools’ Coordinator of Psychological and Mental Health Services.
Students in Springfield’s three middle schools are eligible to participate by writing an essay, poem, song or other form of text. They are asked to “express how violence has affected them, what their solutions to end violence would be and how they can promote peace in their schools and communities.”
The essays are scored in two rounds by groups of community readers, and a student is then chosen to attend the National DtWT conference in Washington, D.C. over the summer. The writings of the top 10 finalists will also be placed in the Library of Congress.
Sponsored by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Springfield was the first district to participate in the state in 2020. The program has grown to include several other school districts in Ohio, including Canton, Lima, Youngstown and Zanesville schools.
Do the Write Thing, which is organized by the National Campaign to Stop Youth Violence, was founded in 1994 and has reached millions of students nationwide.
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