P-CCS High School Students Published in the New York Times
As part of their 21st Century Global Issues & Literature course, Plymouth High School teacher, Olivia Foster's students are required to enter the New York Times Teen Tiny Memoir Contest. This contest invites teenagers to submit a 100-Word Personal Narrative. During the 2023-2024 school year, one student was recognized by the Times as a runner-up among 12,000+ global applicants. This year, more than 12,000 global entries were submitted, and 5 of Ms. Foster's students were contest finalists with 2 students' memoirs appearing in-full in the New York Times. Congratulations to Dana Sassine, Canton High School senior, Sarah Moore, Canton High School junior, and Ms. Foster!
Read the article and Dana and Sarah's tiny memoirs here.
Salem Junior's Peace of Mind Book Club
Playing varsity field hockey, soccer, and participating in clubs at P-CEP may sound like more than enough to keep any student busy, but junior Becca Berry does those things for fun. Becca's real passion is reading, which led her to start the Peace of Mind Book Club, inspired by her 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Wegrzyn, her experience with Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity in Metro Detroit, and her role as secretary of P-CEP's mental health club - Warriors of a Healthy Mind. Peace of Mind combines mental wellness, diversity, advocacy, and reading - all of Becca's passions.
Peace of Mind has curated a collection of over 100 picture books and e-books focused on resilience, cultural diversity, and mental health from around the world. Peace of Mind has been launched in many fourth and fifth grade classrooms across the district and currently has 19 P-CEP student volunteers who partner with elementary classrooms to read with students.
Peace of Mind Book Club aims to inspire a love for reading while fostering understanding, empathy, and peace. Its name reflects the dual mission: promoting inner peace through mental health strategies and community peace through empathy gained from reading.
Through Peace of Mind Book Club, in just over two months, students in P-CCS have read, reported, and discussed over 1500 books!! Students can earn rewards based on the number of books they read, including bookmarks, fidgets, book buddies, and gift cards to Elephant Ear Books in Plymouth.
Thank you so much to Becca, Mrs. Wegrzyn, and Mrs. Larson for their dedication!
If you are interested in learning more about Peace of Mind, contact Becca directly at rlberry858@pccsk12.com.
On Friday, March 14, the Field Elementary Multicultural Ambassador Club (MAC) students had the opportunity to celebrate Holi thanks to Shivangi Awasthi, a special education paraprofessional. Field Eagles got to experience having the bright colors of Holi spread on their faces! A special thank you to Ms. Awasthi and Amy Saurborn for sharing these photos of staff engaged with the Holi celebration!
Celebrating DEI Initiatives
Is your school or department doing something to celebrate or highlight diversity, equity, inclusion, or belonging? We would love to hear about it and share with colleagues! If there is something you would like highlighted in our newsletter, please send information to Katie Ilijic at katie.ilijic@pccsk12.com.
Each April we honor Arab American Heritage Month. April was chosen for this recognition as it is the beginning of the spring season - symbolizing hope, growth, and new beginnings. In 2017, the Arab America Foundation started honoring National Arab American Heritage Month (NAAHM). In 2023, President Biden recognized April as NAAHM with an historic proclamation. In 2023, Congress, the U.S. Department of State, and 47 governors issued proclamations commemorating the month. Today, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, and California have passed permanent legislation designating April as NAAHM.
Please see the resources below that may be helpful as we observe this month:
April is Autism Acceptance Month! In 1970, the Autism Society started National Autistic Children’s week, which became Autism Awareness Month. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly established April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day to raise awareness and improve the quality of life for people living with autism. In 2008, Autism Speaks launched Autism Awareness Month - a comprehensive initiative to raise awareness and promote acceptance and understanding of individuals with autism. In 2021, the Autism Society renamed the month Autism Acceptance Month to emphasize the importance of inclusion and acceptance of individuals with autism.
Autism refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism impacts an estimated 1 in 36 children in the United States today.
This month’s background is “Lily Pads at Amos Lake” by Esther Brokaw. Brokaw was born in Woodbury, NJ in 1960. In 2004, she learned about autism when her 12-year-old daughter was diagnosed. Brokaw was later diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome with savant abilities in patterns. In 1990, after working as an equity trader, Brokaw took time off to have children and began to paint. Brokaw’s work is shaped by her autism, having survived mercury poisoning, and Celiac Disease. Brokaw’s brush detail is colorful and intense as she uses color to inspire and heal herself.
Below, please find a list of resources that may be helpful as we observe this month:
April is Sikh (pronounced ‘sik-kh’) American Heritage Month. April is an important month for the Sikh community as it is when Vaisakhi is celebrated. Vaisakhi marks the beginning of the new year. For more information on Vaisakhi, see “Celebrating Vaisakhi 2025” below. As of 2024, there are an estimated 500,000 Sikh Americans, and with approximately 30 million Sikhs worldwide, Sikhism is the world’s fifth largest religion. Since at least 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has released proclamations each April designating April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month in Michigan.
Below, please find a list of resources that may be helpful as we observe this month:
Students, staff, and families around the world will celebrate and honor Passover beginning at sundown on Saturday, April 12 and ending at sundown on Sunday, April 20.
What is Passover?
Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is one of the Jewish religion’s most sacred and widely observed holidays. In Judaism, Passover commemorates the story of the Israelites’ departure from ancient Egypt.
When is Passover?
Like Easter in Christianity and Ramadan in Islam, the date of Passover changes each year. Passover begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. That means that Passover 2025 begins at sundown on Saturday, April 12 and ends on the evening of Sunday, April 20.
How is Passover Celebrated?
Although traditions may vary from family-to-family, typically during Passover all leavened food products are removed from the home for the duration. On the first two nights of Passover, families and friends traditionally gather for a religious meal known as the seder. There are certain objects that are always part of a Passover seder, including:
The seder plate: a large round plate with 6 indentations containing symbolic foods - a roasted egg (new life); bitter herbs (ancient Jews’ hard lives); parsley (spring); charoset - a sweet mixture of apples and honey (mortar used by the slaves); shank bond (slaughtered lambs); and lettuce of horseradish (slaves’ bitter lives).
The Haggadah: the Passover book featuring the story of the exodus of the Jews along with songs and prayers.
The kiddush cup: representing the prophet Elijah’s empty spot.
Passover foods: typically gefilte fish, chopped liver, brisket, and matzo ball soup, among others.
For more information, please visit the links below:
Christian students, staff, and families in our community and around the world will celebrate the Holy Week beginning Sunday, April 13 through Sunday, April 20, 2025. Holy Week is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, observed with special solemnity as a time of devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday, is the first day of Holy Week, and the Sunday before Easter. It is associated, in many churches, with the blessing and procession of palms. The day marks Jesus’ monumental arrival in Jerusalem, the start of the march to his death on a wooden cross. It is often known as Passion Sunday in honor of his suffering and death before his resurrection.
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles.
Good Friday
Good Friday comes following the end of Lent. The Lenten season is a 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and self-discipline for Christians ending on the evening of Holy Thursday. According to the Christian faith, Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. Just days later, Christians celebrate Jesus’ rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.
East Sunday
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion.
Please see the resources below for additional information:
On April 14, 2025, Sikhs around the world and in our community will celebrate Vaisakhi - the most significant of the annual Sikh gatherings. Vaisakhi celebrates the spring harvest of winter crops. In 1699, Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and final Sikh Guru, gathered the community and formalized the Guru Khalsa Panth, the community of initiated Sikhs. Each April, Sikhs gather in their community on Vaisakhi to remember history, celebrate collectively, and recommit to their religious traditions.
Please see the resources below for more information:
April 22, 2025 is Earth Day. Earth Day was established in 1970 as a day to remind ourselves of the importance of clean air, fresh water, and unlittered land. It is a day to learn green strategies to preserve the environment and conserve natural resources. The theme for Earth Day 2025 is Our Power, Our Planet, which invites people around the world to unite behind renewable energy, and to triple the global generation of clean electricity by 2030.
Please see the resources below for additional information:
Empathy is a skill that allows us to be in tune with the emotions of others. It is the capacity to share, understand, and care about what others feel. Empathy may refer to the ability to imagine and understand how other people think or feel (cognitive empathy) or it may refer to the ability to sense others’ emotions and experience feelings that mirror theirs’ (emotional empathy).
Empathy is important because it can help us understand the perspectives, needs, and intentions of others. Empathy helps us become more altruistic by allowing us to help others even when it may go against our self-interest. Empathy can bring us closer to others and create bridges to connect us with people we do not yet have a relationship with. Empathy can also improve outcomes for students. Across educational studies, researchers find that teacher empathy results in greater student participation, motivation to learn, increase self-esteem, more social connections, and decreased disruptive behaviors and absences. So how can we cultivate empathy for ourselves and others?
Building Empathy in Ourselves
Meditate. Practices that allow for contemplation, like meditation, help us sharpen our empathy, especially when people practice loving-kindness meditation.
Tell stories. Stories allow people to connect with joy and pain. Evidence suggests that readers understand others better the more they read.
Seek out friendship. When the world feels “us versus them” it is hard to have empathy. However, when we view the world, and our community, as “you and I” it allows us to connect with people and experience less prejudice.
Cultivating Empathy in Others
Model it. A teacher who demonstrates empathy will find that students become more empathetic.
Teach perspective. Using texts to help students understand how different characters may view the same event helps us understand varying perspectives. Encourage deep thinking about perspective by having students imagine scenarios from other points of view.
Promote active listening. This occurs when the listener truly hears what the speaker is saying. Active listening may include focusing one’s attention, acknowledging the speaker, making eye contact, etc.
Demonstrate empathetic communication. Acknowledge that you understand what someone might be feeling or going through. Use sentence starters such as “it sounds like…” or “I hear that you…”
Develop community projects. When students act on a difficult situation, they show and develop compassion and empathy. Service learning projects allow groups of students to work together toward a common goal. Examples may include collecting food for a food bank, volunteering with a nursing home, fundraising for disaster victims, or organizing a school clean-up event.
For more information, please see the resources below:
P-CCS Hate and Bias Reporting Form
This is a safe online reporting platform for P-CCS students/families to document incidents of hate and bias in our schools or at school-related events.
Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students
At P-CCS, we are committed to creating and fostering an educational environment for all students that is safe, welcoming, and free from stigma and discrimination, regardless of a student’s sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression. Additionally, we will work to ensure that we are in compliance with local, state, and federal laws concerning bullying, harassment, privacy, and discrimination while ensuring that all students have the opportunity to express themselves and live authentically.
What do "gender nonconforming" and "nonbinary/genderqueer" mean?
To honor students' opportunities to express themselves, P-CCS welcomes students regardless of their gender expression and gender identity, including students who identify as gender nonconforming or nonbinary/genderqueer. The P-CCS Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students Policy (Policy 5517.03) defines gender nonconforming and nonbinary/genderqueer as follows:
- Gender Nonconforming: a term for people whose gender expression differs from stereotypical expectations, such as "feminine" boys, "masculine" girls, and those who are perceived as androgynous. This includes people who identify outside traditional gender categories or identify as multiple genders. Other terms that can have similar meanings include gender diverse or gender expansive.
- Nonbinary/Genderqueer: Terms used by those who identify with neither, both, or a combination of genders.
Please click here to read the entire Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students Policy (Policy 5517.03) for Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Katie Ilijic (She/Her/Hers)
Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Compliance
Email: katie.ilijic@pccsk12.com
Website: https://www.pccsk12.com/departments/teaching-learning/diversity-equity-and-inclusion
Location: 454 South Harvey Street, Plymouth, MI, USA