Actions

Dinwiddie teacher uses yarn to unite students after election

Posted at 6:41 PM, Nov 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-14 18:41:20-05

DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va.  -- Teachers at Dinwiddie County High School said tensions were already last Tuesday -- locally and nationally -- even before the election outcome.

When Wednesday morning rolled around, Art teacher Jamie Loving said there was a "fierce dichotomy of celebration and mourning."

Loving had spent Tuesday night thinking about her students.

"How am I going to make them feel like they can be in school right now," she said. "I wanted them to be able to feel what they wanted to feel."

So, the teacher turned to yarn. "My target was just to make my students understand that they could agree with each other and coexist and not have to hate anything," she said, standing next to her unity arch.

"My target was just to make my students understand that they could agree with each other and coexist and not have to hate anything," she said, standing next to her unity arch.

Loving wrote down quotes from the candidates, without their names, and taped them to the arch.

Then she wrote down beliefs the students may have and taped them to the arch.

Yarn was then used by students to connect the different statements and beliefs that they had together and some students began to realize they weren't so divided.

"It united us in a time when we were separated," said Leah Wofford, who pointed to the yarn and added "these are all people and we can all connect together."

Jeremiah Campos used blue yarn to connect the quotes and beliefs.

"I think it's amazing, it might look a little rough but I mean, that's how American is, a little rough but at the same time we find things that are connected," Campos said.

While it started out as a project just for classes Loving teaches, it ended up uniting students.

CBS6-News-at-4pm-and-Jennifer-Hudson-480x360.jpg

Entertainment

Watch 'The Jennifer Hudson Show' weekdays at 3 p.m. on CBS 6!

📱 Download CBS 6 News App
The app features breaking news alerts, live video, weather radar, traffic incidents, closings and delays and more.