Former slave from Connecticut addresses students
By Angela Greiner Community Reporter

PHOTO/ANGELA GREINER Hudson High School student Amanda Winn (right) meets former slave Micheline Slattery at Clark University.

Hudson - One hundred thirty high school students sat riveted listening to Micheline Slattery, the keynote speaker at the Education and Leadership for a Nonviolent Age (ELNA) Collaborative's 16th annual high school leadership conference, held March 7 at Clark University in Worcester. Slattery was one of several speakers addressing students from six school districts, including Hudson and Shrewsbury, to promote leadership skills, social awareness and civic responsibility.

In her opening address, Slattery spoke to students and faculty about her experiences as a child slave trafficked to the United States, where she was bought by a family in Connecticut and brutally beaten; she ran away at the age of 18.

Deborah Peeples, from Shrewsbury, is the director of the ELNA Collaborative.

"The organization is a consortium of school districts with a mission to engage students in positive peer leadership, civic engagement and social responsibility," she said.

The conference was set up so students could choose to attend three of the 13 workshops with guest speakers presenting a variety of topics such as "Thin is In," "Face Hunger," "Healthy Relationships," "Current Civil Liberties Issues" and "Free to Be Me."

Peeples said that each year the collaborative off ers different workshops, although this year it re-invited Al Toney, who serves as the vice chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the commissioner of the Massachusetts Legislative Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, because his workshop is so popular with the students.

"Students are facing so many issues with self-identity," he said. "… They get so many messages … and they are trying to figure out where they fit into the world."

He explained that in his workshop he hopes to raise awareness about some myths and stereotypes and to challenge students to think about the messages they send out through their behavior and language.

Slattery told stories of her childhood, which included being forced to kneel on cheese graters covered with rock salt, having her ears twisted until they bled, and being ridiculed by students at the public high school she attended in Connecticut (where she was sent under the guise of her captors' child).

Hudson High School student Amanda Winn, who has worked in a school-run special interest group to raise awareness about issues facing refugees from Darfur, said it was very powerful to hear a first-hand account of slavery.

"Her story was surreal," Winn said. "To hear this helps raise my awareness of what others students or peoples might be facing."

Slattery left students with a parting message.

"I want you to leave here today and remember that slavery is not history," she said. "It is happening right here around you ... and it is okay to ask people if they are okay."

ELNA Advisor Tammy Murphy said that there were 43 students attending from Hudson High School who were invited based on both their good academic standing and their displayed signs of leadership.

"We are looking to build leadership skills," Murphy said. "We hope students who attend today's conference will get involved and see that they can make a diff erence."