LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There's a sense of urgency students at Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) share. With the launch of a new virtual curriculum, JusticeNow502, students in elementary, middle, and high school grades pursue advocating for social justice. They each have their own passion project on an individual topic but altogether fight for equality through each.
The motto is "Justice Now," and the hub launched in its first meeting on Thursday. With a song and meditation, the inaugural meeting featured guest speakers such as poetess Hannah Drake, Roots 101 African American Museum curator Lamont Collins, and "Hood to the Holler" Founder and former State Rep. Charles Booker. Students interviewed the speakers.
"Can you tell us what good trouble is, Mr. Booker?" McFerran Elementary School fifth-grader Jada Gidron asked Booker.
"Good trouble" is Gidron's passion project.
"It's about the type of disruption that makes healing possible, like, the type of disturbance that makes justice possible. When you think about trouble, trouble is something that is like...in the way," answered Booker.
But Gidron has her own interpretation.
To her, it means, "If you see anyone at school, you know, getting bullied, I might step in and help even though I might get in trouble. But it's the right thing to do."
That's why she's participating in the new program, she explained to Spectrum News 1.
JCPS Chief Equity Officer John Marshall weighed in.
"This is a kind of program, this is a kind of thought, kind of a motivation that JCPS is putting forward to really address some of the things that we have witnessed. The lynching of Breonna Taylor is unexcusable. We have students that have tackled this movement. We have teachers that want to be a part of this movement," he said.
Breonna Taylor was killed in March of last year when several Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers executed a no-knock warrant at her apartment. Her death has since sparked protests in Louisville and across the country.
"People need to be treated fairly, like other people shouldn't be treated just for their color or race," Gidron added, telling Spectrum News 1 it's for that reason she also marched for justice.