Any way you slice it, the students and staff of East Baton Rouge Parish School System celebrated Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in style on January 20. At Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School, Rose Hatcher’s fourth-grade class enjoyed an inauguration cake (first photo). The class also was involved in a myriad of related activities, such as making posters, writing and performing rap songs and creating floats. In addition, they watched the broadcast of the Presidential Swearing-In Ceremony. All the events were extensions of the class’ Social Studies curriculum.

Kandiest Brock, principal at Greenville Elementary School, took her children, Tramauni who attends
Westdale Middle School and Tyler and Taylor who attend Forest Heights Academy of Excellence, to
Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of America’s 44th president. The children toured the city and attended festivities. They even met with military soldiers present that day (second photo).

Banks Elementary School students wrote letters to Obama, the United States’ first African-American president.  Student Amy Butler wrote “I hope you really make a change, because we really need it. It would be a dream come true. … You remind me of Martin Luther King, because he wanted us to have peace in the world.”  Student Allison Wallace wrote, “Is the White House fun? Could you please come to Banks Elementary? Would you bring supplies and pencils, paper, Crayons, copy paper?”

In addition, Westdale Middle School student Zsaknor Powe attended the inauguration as a guest of the Junior Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference. Victoria Regueira, a deaf sixth-grade student at Woodlawn Middle School, and Anson Madison, a hard-of-hearing fourth grader from Sharon Hills Elementary School, traveled with state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey’s entourage and attended the inauguration. Resource teacher Darce Dorsey accompanied the students, signed for them and journaled their experiences.

At Woodlawn Middle School, students watched the broadcast of the inauguration ceremony via projected computer image in every classroom school wide. Following the broadcast, students filled out quiz sheets and discussed this event in conjunction with a study guide.