This April, the John Carroll Community will be spreading awareness about genocide in many different ways.

During an advisory class, different presentations from students in the Human Rights class, Creative Writing class, and Mrs. Hall’s senior English class will be shared. Advisors are encouraged to lead a follow-up discussion to spark a reflective conversation among their students.
During a normal year, Genocide Awareness Day would be a day-long event. In the past, classes would hear from guest speakers as well as hear multiple JC students’ personal reflections about genocide. Names of people who lost their lives to genocide would be read to the student body.
Genocide Awareness Day coordinator, Mrs. Louise Geczy said, “We did not want to abandon the vigil this year even though a full in-person event could not be staged because John Carroll is committed to not only raising awareness about genocides and other atrocities, but also encouraging action against them. So, we decided that inviting students to investigate this issue and then share their responses would be our best approach this year. Sharing this information in extended advisories means we will be able to reach the entire student body.”
The hope of this event is to raise awareness of genocides that are not talked about enough in the media.
Mrs. Geczy said, “Even though the internet opens up all areas of the word to us, I believe that for many, our perspectives remain fairly insular. The Holocaust was a horrendous genocide that targeted millions of individuals, but sadly genocides have not stopped. There are genocidal actions occurring in various parts of the world every day. If we have no knowledge, then no corrective actions can be done… We have an obligation to end our lives having done whatever we can whenever we can to better our world — not just for ourselves, but for others as well.”